


Kansaki Sou - Drabble Collection

by catystorm (trismegistus)



Series: Kansaki Sou [47]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Multi-Fandom, Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, Crossover Pairing, Fluff and Crack, M/M, Multiple Fandoms
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-23
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-14 09:14:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 62
Words: 21,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2186076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trismegistus/pseuds/catystorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collecting all the short muse'verse/sandbox multifandom fic I've posted via tumblr & typetrigger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter is its own short fic.

"Close the window," Edward’s voice was muffled by the thick comforter he had rolled himself into. "It’s fucking cold out there, do you want me to get frostbite?"

Kenshin Himura released the slats of the blind, and they snapped back to their former position loudly. He contemplated arguing the point - it had not even been quite that cold today, there was almost a hint of early spring in the air; although Kenshin knew that truthfully this was just a small reprieve. Winter wasn’t quite through with them yet. He glanced back at the dark gray lump in the middle of the bed and decided it really was not worth the headache of arguing with Edward. He left the blinds open, though, just because.

Edward had been in one of his moods again. He was always far more short-tempered in the winter months; and the combination of being stuck inside and constantly cold in the big, drafty old house certainly did not help matters. It wasn’t unusual or a malady that was strictly Edward’s - just about everyone in the big old house had developed a case of cabin fever. Kenshin sat on the bed, the mattress giving as he leaned back. It was absolutely dark out, it felt like deep into the middle of the night, instead of only a few hours past sunset. Their room faced off of the front of the house, from here, even sitting, he could see the bright lights of the garage and its apartments cutting through the darkness like a cheery beacon.

"It’s cold," Edward’s voice was clear, if only a little muffled by his refusal to let any part of himself be seen. 

"Could be worse," Kenshin said philosophically. "Could be snowing."

There was a long groan from under the covers. “Snow.” Only Edward could make a single word sound like the most vulgar of epitaphs. 

"I thought you liked snow." Kenshin teased him gently, pulling his hair free from the low ponytail and running his fingers through it. "Or is it that you just like launching snowballs as big as your head at Roy?"

There was no response for a moment while Edward gave this careful consideration. “I like winning,” he said finally. 

Kenshin laughed and leaned back, poking the blanket-covered lump with one finger. “No surprise there,” he said. “Scoot over, or are you going to be a caterpillar again tonight?”

Finally, for the first time all evening, Edward’s head emerged, his bangs ruffled and static-y from being wrapped under the comforter. He eyed Kenshin suspiciously, and Kenshin sighed deeply. “It’s not a trap, Ed - I would like to come to bed.”

Slowly Edward unwound, allowing Kenshin access to the blankets on the bed. He slithered in with Edward, the sheets already warm from his body heat. The entire cocoon smelled of Ed, and Edward yelped a bit in surprise when Kenshin wrapped his arms around Edward and nestled his face between Edward’s shoulder blades. “Warm,” Kenshin murmured, content.

"Stop it, you’re making me crush my book," Edward squirmed in Kenshin’s grasp and Kenshin sighed, letting him go only a bit reluctantly Edward pushed a large book out from under the covers, along with a flashlight. "So THAT’S what you’ve been doing all day," Kenshin said finally. "I didn’t think even you could possibly sleep that much."

"Shut up," Edward said, snuggling down against Kenshin, and Kenshin smiled, wrapping his arms around Edward again.


	2. calm before the storm

Kenshin Himura stood out on the wrap-around porch of the Kansaki Sou, holding a cup of hot tea and trying to ignore the increasingly steady clamor coming from indoors. It had warmed considerably over the last few days - a hint of spring to come, although it wouldn’t last - and the sky was mostly clear, with a few heavy clouds scudding along the horizon. He sipped his tea and sighed, enjoying the safety that the darkness brought.

There was a lot of infighting in the ‘Sou these days. Elrics were territorial beasts, it appeared, and there were occasionally disputes. Kenshin had not bothered to stop in and see what had caused this particular kerfluffle - a quick scan of the occupants of the kitchen confirmed that none of the blonds present belonged to him, so he had absconded to the porch. Playing peacemaker with this lot was like juggling live grenades, and it just wasn’t worth the hassle.


	3. close your eyes

It was cute seeing Kenshin and Edward together. Roy Mustang observed them as stealthily as possible, from behind the local newspaper that had been left on the kitchen table. He tried to make a habit of reading the newspaper, even if the local politicians absolutely bewildered him and he had no idea what was so enthralling about the large sports section. All the same, it was not unusual to see him behind the open pages and as such, his presence was not as conspicuous as some.

This other Edward was a curious variation on his own. They both came from a nearly identical background - the difference being that this Edward had given up everything for the sake of his little brother, while his own Edward had not been given the chance to make the same sacrifice. Roy was intensely grateful, in a way - the hardships and trauma and sacrifices that they themselves had been through together had shaped him into a better person for it; and he could not imagine the heartbreak his other self must have gone through to lose Edward Elric forever.

Kenshin was making pancakes - mostly successfully, although with Edward hovering around him like he was it was making the process marginly more difficult then it would be otherwise. Edward was not quite underfoot, but his help was less than necessary, Kenshin kept scrunching his nose and trying to look down it severely at Edward, and Edward would blink at him innocently and then fetch a half-cooked pancake from the griddle with his automail. The pancake fell apart between his fingers, bits of the gooey uncooked part sliding through the joints and the more cooked bits falling to the floor, where they were quickly vacuumed up by a ready and eager Hermes. Kenshin sighed in aggravation and Edward grinned and flicked pancake batter at Kenshin, who smiled despite himself.

Edward looked so at ease with Kenshin. He looked almost like a different person - he still wore his hair in a fat braid, but the open, honest smiles lit up his face and he didn’t look quite so guarded as he did when he interacted with any of the different versions of Roy that inhabited the boarding house. It was remarkable, and made Roy feel a bit light himself, buoyed by the exuberant happiness that permeated the kitchen.

He looked up again to see Kenshin looking fondly at Edward, who had been punished by stirring more pancake batter with a whisk. Kenshin’s eyes flicked up to meet Roy’s, and Roy, startled, glanced back down at the newspaper almost guiltily. He stared at the words and kept his face composed, although he wasn’t quite sure why he felt guilty. The kitchen was a common area, and if they were having intimate moments in public that was their problem, not his. 

Was he this affectionate with his own Edward? His Edward, the earthborne archangel, who wore his angel name instead of his own here in this home. There were so many different Edwards now that it hardly made a difference, but he had not stopped, perhaps he felt more comfortable with the name now than he liked to let on. Roy liked to think that he showed the same level of affection with him - but the honest truth was that he didn’t know. Edward, his Edward, had been deeply scarred by their past. He had gotten remarkably better, because he knew that when Roy was possessed that it wasn’t ROY in there; but that still did not change his occasional flinch, or the way that he would turn from Roy in his sleep, huddled alone at the edge of the bed.

Roy sighed, and picked up his coffee. It hurt, deeply, when Edward did that - and what was intensely worse was that occasionally Roy felt like he deserved the pain. If he ha done more to protect himself, if he had done more to protect Edward - maybe Samael wouldn’t have happened. Maybe Edward wouldn’t look at him with such pain. 

If Samael had happened though, would Edward have stayed? An archangel did not age - they were immortal, guardians of an eternal war against darkness. Edward would have a different pain then … but who was he to dictate that? The dark thoughts crept along the border of his conscious mind, and Roy had to make an effort to banish them again. Samael was dead. His legacy buried. Supposedly even his angelic name had been struck from the books - Roy was Saminiel, in the Book of Life - but everyone knew his patron. 

The sound of a plate on the table made Roy look up. Kenshin was standing beside him, with a plate stacked high of pancakes. Edward was at his elbow, half of a cooked pancake hanging out of his mouth. (Roy was willing to bet the other half was hanging out of the dog’s mouth.) 

"We made extra," Kenshin said with a warm smile. "Thought you’d like to share some with Sariel."

"Can’t promise there isn’t dog fur in them," Edward chimed in, having consumed the entire pancake hanging from his mouth without touching it with his hands. "Hermes has been helping."

"Thank you," Roy said genuinely. 

Kenshin threaded his arm around Edward’s waist, casting a knowing glance back at Roy as the two of them went off, carrying a tray full of pancakes and syrup and hot tea, Hermes at their ankles. 

Roy didn’t know Kenshin as well as he’d like - he knew that Kenshin had a lifetime of his own trauma put well behind him. He and Roy shared a lot of common ground, using their talents to kill for their respective governments … the biggest difference between them was that Kenshin had the courage to renounce that same government and part ways, atoning for his sins in his own way. 

But here, like Edward, it seemed that he had found some small measure of peace. 

Roy stood, and put the pancakes on a tray himself. He had left his Edward asleep on the bed, sprawled over half of it, laying open and unguarded and snoring slightly from laying on his back. He would be ravenous when he awoke, so it would be best to placate him quickly. 

As he was finishing up the tray, yet another Edward walked into the kitchen. He was taller than Roy’s Edward, but not quite as tall as Roy, and most of his hair was swept back into a frazzled ponytail that looked like he had slept in it. “Mornin’,” this Edward said, covering his yawn with the back of his left hand.

"Good morning," Roy greeted automatically. It took a visual confirmation of automail for him to discern that this was the second-oldest of the Edwards who lived here - the one who had stayed in the military and advanced his career. Roy always felt a bit uneasy around this Edward, and that was because this Edward had absorbed some of Roy’s own character traits. For example, despite being half-asleep still his face was remarkably composed. It was unsettling to know how much the Roy from this Edward’s world had affected him - especially with his death. "I expect that Kenshin and Edward will be back around to clean up their mess eventually. I’m done with the newspaper, if you wanted to read it before anyone tears it up further."

"Thank you." Edward headed toward the coffeepot. "If you see Rian, point him in my direction, please? He didn’t come to bed last night, I knew letting Edward loan him books from his personal stash was a bad idea."

Roy nodded his head, picking up the tray. “I will if I see him.”

Edward waved his automail hand in acknowledgement, already halfway through a cup of coffee composed primarily of the sludge from the bottom of the pot. Roy suppressed a shudder at Edward’s lack of taste buds, and headed upstairs.

The Kansaki Sou was an old home converted into a boarding house. It wasn’t the most efficient layout, but nearly all the residents got along in some form or fashion, so there were remarkably few blow-ups about bathroom wait times or usage of the kitchen or den. Roy didn’t pass anyone else on his way back to their room - several bedroom doors stood open to show that the residents were out and about, and a few - like Kenshin and Edward’s - were now closed.

Roy balanced the tray in one hand and opened the door to his own room, only to be greeted by a flurry of feathers. He blinked as white feathers promptly whooshed past him, quite a few settling on the pancakes and tray. Unruffled, he stepped into the room and pulled the door closed behind him, making a mental note to sweep up after he sorted this one out. “And what,” he asked, waving iridescent white feathers out of the air in front of him, “exactly do you think YOU are doing?”

"Man," The Archangel Sariel - better known as Edward Elric (number 2) said in disgust, flattening his large white wings against his back and settling back on the bed to sulk. "You RUINED it."

Roy looked around the room. There was a dusting of white feathers over everything, laying thick on the floor as well as on the dresser and chair and of course the bed. “What-“

Edward extended both of his white wings as he threw his arms out wide. “I was trying to figure out how to do the WHAM room thing,” he said. “You know, like when Raf pissed of Michael that one time and Michael did that huge I FILL THE ROOM WITH MY WINGS OF RAGE thing. Ooh, are those pancakes?”

Roy plucked a feather from the stack of pancakes. “I seem to recall it was you pissing off the head of the archangels,” he said mildly. “But yes, it was impressive. Why are you trying to do it?”

"Because it’s cool and intimidating." Edward bounced to his feet in the center of the bed, his wings folded behind him. "I mean, look at me. I need to pump up the intimidation factor as much as possible, I look like a little kid."

Roy set the tray down on the dresser, giving up on the feathers. “You look just as you’ve always looked,” he said calmly. “You’re not a child, we both know that.”

"Yeah." Edward put his hands on his hips. "WE know that. No one else does, though." He jabbed a finger at Roy, accentuating the gesture with his wing. "YOU don’t have that problem, you look like a fucking adult. Assfuck over the garage asked if I’d ever even had to SHAVE." He folded his arms over his chest. "Assfuck."

"Which-" Roy started to ask.

"Who do you think, the angel fucker Winchester." Edward huffed dramatically. "You would think he’d be a bit more circumspect if he’s boffing an Angel of the Lord, but some people don’t know how to shut their fucking mouths."

Roy smiled a little at that. “Do tell,” he murmured.

Edward bounded off the bed, landing flatfoot and spreading his wings, so that the pinion feathers brushed either wall. Then as much as they had filled the room, they abruptly vanished, leaving a final few shed feathers to flutter gently to the floor.

He glanced around at the carpet of feathers. “So you think anyone needs any more pillows?”

Roy tugged his Edward close, tilted his head up and kissed him gently. Edward hesitated only the barest moment before responding to him, pressing his body against Roy’s, a bundle of power and muscle in his arms. 

He lifted his head and looked down at Edward, whose eyes had slid closed, a faint blush creeping across his features. After a long moment Edward licked his lips and opened his eyes, a hint of warm gold between thick lashes. “What was that for?”

"Because I love you," Roy murmured. 

Edward closed his eyes again, and when he opened them he opened them fully. “You brought pancakes,” he said cheerfully. “Did Kenshin make them? They’re not burnt like yours.”

Roy rolled his eyes, smiled, and stuffed a pancake into Edward’s mouth.

Their relationship may not be perfect, but it was all that he needed.


	4. natural disaster

“Okay,” Kenshin said, hands on his hips as he surveyed what remained of the living room. “I was gone for an hour. Didn’t there used to be a couch in here?”

“A couch,” Rian said, sitting on the stairs with his chin in his hand. “A chair, a coffee table, some lamps…”

“Bookcases,” Kennichi chimed in.

“Bookcases,” Kenshin sighed. “I was gone for an hour.”

The living room was completely empty. Even the rug had been removed from the hardwood floor, leaving the room looking – and feeling – remarkably smaller. “I suppose I should be grateful for small miracles,” Kenshin murmured as he stood in the middle of the room. “Nothing is destroyed, just missing.” He looked over at Rian. “So whose fault is it?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” the younger alchemist said with a shrug. “But I wouldn’t be surprised if the perpetrator had blond hair.”

Kennichi was in his wolf form, sitting two stairs higher than Rian, his head poked between the banister rails. His ears were standing upright, watching Kenshin cautiously. “He’d be right,” he said.

Kenshin looked at the werewolf wearily. “Which one was it?”

An ear flicked, Kennichi considered the question. “Would it be inappropriate to tattle on them?” he asked rhetorically.

“Which one was it?” Kenshin repeated flatly, and Kennichi sneezed, shaking his head violently in response.

“All of them,” he said.

“All-?” Kenshin repeated. “All of them. Of course. All of them.”

Rian was counting on his fingers. “How many of them are all of them?”

“Five,” Kennichi responded.

Kenshin was counting too. “Five? Or six?”

“Five,” Kennichi said. “Nick doesn’t count and he’s smart enough to stay out of it.”

“Why are – why did all five of them take the living room furniture?” Kenshin asked.

“Do you really want that question answered?” Rian asked.

Kenshin sighed. “They took the living room furniture. Where ARE they?”

“Do you really want that question answered?”

Kenshin glowered at Rian. “Are you taking their side or something?”

“No, I’m just asking a simple question,” Rian said.

“I’m going to kill him,” Kenshin muttered. “I’m going to kill the ringleader, and I’m willing to bet I know who the ringleader is.”

Roy stuck his head through the doorway. “So, uh. I didn’t want to be the one to say it, but is there a reason the couch is out on the lawn?”

“I’m going to kill them all,” Kenshin said. “And mount their heads as trophies.”

“Hey,” Rian said indignantly. “I like mine. Don’t behead him. Take his automail or something.”

“I like mine too,” Kenshin said. “I’m still going to kill him.”


	5. Chapter 5

Kenshin Himura was sitting out on the porch and enjoying the warm, spring-like weather. It was a gray day, the threat of rain seemed to loom in the atmosphere but it was considerably warmer than it had been in weeks. Given that the porch was covered, and if it DID start to rain he was safely sheltered, he settled in on one of the old wooden rocking chairs and opened a book.

He was not currently allowed (“allowed”) into Edward’s lab in the basement. There were any number of reasons why that could be, up to and including Edward concocting some sort of ridiculous potion or invention or whatever it was he got up to when he was on a tear about something – or it was the more likely explanation, which was that there was about two weeks worth of dishes and grime built up and Edward was contentedly nesting in it. Kenshin suppressed a shudder at that thought, he never understood how Edward could just create a pile of filth and be content in it, but give Edward enough of a distraction and he would forget the different between night and day.

And he would also occasionally forget the difference between flammable and not, but there was nothing damaged that wasn’t easily reparable.

All the same, Kenshin had meditated on the thought of being worried about whatever Edward was up to, but he came to the resolution that it really didn’t matter. Either Edward would make a a mess and they would clean it up, or Edward wouldn’t make a mess and whatever it was that he was up to would be relatively sane, safe, and at least quasi-legal.

Kenshin’s peaceful reverie, however, was broken by the faint, and growing louder shout that sounded distinctly like an Elric shrieking “INCOMING-!”

The impact shook the entire porch, and feathers erupted like an exploded pillow down one side of the edifice. Kenshin closed his book and sighed as Sariel rolled off the roof in a flurry of feathers and flumped rather painfully to the ground.

Kenshin leaned out over the railing and looked at the other Edward, who had fortunately landed in some rather prickly bushes. “Are you all right?”

“NO.” Sariel threw out his wings, displaying shining white feathers, some of which snapped off. In the warm early afternoon sun the feathers twinkled merrily, the ice that encased them evaporating rather than melting. Kenshin nodded at the melting ice on his wings.

“Flew too close to the lower atmosphere I see,” Kenshin said, amused. “What happened?

“Atmosphere, feh-” Sariel tried to clamber out of the bushes and failed. “It’s some kid in a blue hoodie that almost became my hood ornament. Throwing fucking ice bolts around like nothing, I fucking swear.”

“Kid in a blue hoodie,” Kenshin repeated. “Not another Ed, then?”

“Not a chance,” Sariel said. “I’d recognize him, at least.” He tilted his head back and scanned the sky. “If I see him again, I’ll whoop his ass. Doesn’t respect the flying lanes, fucking jackass.


	6. working late

It was seven o’clock on a Saturday. Edward shuffled his feet, hands in his pockets as he stood in place on the sidewalk. Kenshin was closing up at the book shop tonight, he would not be done until closer to eight and Edward thought he would be chivalrous and show up to walk his boyfriend home. What he got for his troubles was Kenshin shoving him right back out the door of the shop, hissing under his breath “I told you not to come in here!” and slamming the door behind him. Edward sulked about on the sidewalk directly outside the store for a good ten minutes, directing injured glares at Kenshin through the glass, before moving on up the street.

Kenshin didn’t have to be so RUDE about it. Edward knew Kenshin liked to keep him out of book stores in general and the book shop that he worked at in particular – but it wasn’t like Edward was going to DO anything. Maybe browse a few books and look around while waiting for Kenshin to finish up his closing duties. He wasn’t a little kid, he didn’t need to be supervised all the damn time.

But Kenshin got weird about his job, and Edward could appreciate that even if he didn’t understand it. Didn’t mean he still wasn’t going to give him hell on the walk home, but he could at least appreciate it.

The small little town had grown a lot more recently. Edward lingered in front of the window at R + E Repair, but the shop was dark. They didn’t keep much by the way of operating hours, most of the time it was only open by appointment only. Edward turned back to the street, his hands still in his pockets.

And walked face-first into a flying, blue cat.

There was a confused moment of absolute flail – Edward scrabbled at the cat now glued to his face, the cat made a strange shrieking cry and finally they extricated – and Edward was absolutely sure he was hallucinating, because he was in fact looking at a flying blue cat with small white wings and why the fuck did something like that even exist???

There was nothing about this that could possibly be weirder.

Then the blue flying cat burst into tears.

“Whoa,” Edward said, and immediately felt stupid. BLUE FLYING CAT. “Are you … okay, I guess? I didn’t meant to hurt-”

“I can’t find Natsuuuu,” the cat cried.

“Uh,” Edward looked around. There were never much by the way of pedestrians out and about on these streets – a few people, here and there, but no one seemed to be looking for a BLUE FLYING CAT. Edward scratched the back of his head with one hand. “I’m sorry, I don’t know this guy, where did you last see him-?”

The blue cat sniffed and pawed at its eyes with one tiny blue paw. It was really freakishly proportioned, Edward realized now, with an over-large head on a tinier, more anthropomorphic body. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know,” Edward repeated.

The cat nodded miserably. “I smelled fish and I was hungry and then when I turned around Natsu was gone!”

Edward looked around again and sighed. Well, he HAD been looking for a distraction. And it wasn’t like a talking, blue flying cat was the weirdest thing he had ever seen in his life. “Well, let’s go find your friend then.”


	7. letting go

He had anticipated it, they had discussed it in the weeks and months and even years before. If the opportunity presented itself, that he should go, that he needed to go back. Kenshin had his arms wrapped around Edward in the bed, his face pressed to Edward’s hair and told him in an unwavering voice to not even hesitate. This was not his world.

Kenshin had never been good at lies. He was too good natured, open and honest and yet somehow Edward did not see through this one. It broke his heart and rent his soul, and the old adage came back around to haunt him. ‘If you love someone, let them go.’ He did not want to have to make that decision, he wanted to be selfish and keep Edward in his bed, in his arms forever. He could not think of his life after, of a world without Edward in it. He too, by all rights, should not exist in this world. Without Edward, how could he even think to keep going? It was a black despair that drenched his future, and all he could live in, and live for, was the present.

There was a lead on someone who possibly had the Philosopher’s Stone. Yuukito thought it was a trap and rightfully so, Edward was one of the few alchemists in the world who could transmute by touch, and so they all went. Of course it was a trap and they were well-prepared, but in the midst of the conflict a transmutation circle was activated and the Stone went up like a volcano – and the opportunity arose.

Kenshin from across the room, his heart in his throat, his lungs constricted to the point of being unable to breathe. He would have been struck down if Kennichi had not leapt upon his attacker and torn out the man’s throat. Edward was standing in front of the bright pillar of light, dwarfed by it, it reached to the very top of the cavern and Kenshin felt numb to his very core. Edward hesitated before it, looking back into the fighting, searching for him and he did not even know how he spoke the word, but it came from his mouth. “Go.”

It was all that he could give Edward, it was the only thing he could truly give him aside from the love they built between them. A rush of emotions, of dizziness and he could not let Edward go without a final kiss. Fighting his way through the mess of antagonists and he was at Edward’s side in a heartbeat. “Go,” Kenshin said, his hands in Edward’s hair as he kissed him desperately, one last taste, but the bright column of light was already starting to shrink. “Go.”

This was it, his entire world and Edward looked back at the light and he had never looked so gorgeous, hair disheveled and blood streaked down one side of his face. “No,” Edward said, and turned back to him. “Not without you.”

It was if all the world had stopped, the fighting echoed back to a faint din, just the two of them before the light. He had already dropped his sword, both of his hands were on Edward, on his shoulders, on his face, he couldn’t, he couldn’t-

And then he looked back, sensed the gaze on him and met Kennichi’s eye. In his wolf form, his battle form he always looked like he was smiling but his mouth was open and his tongue lolled free. He nodded his head, eyes fierce and bright and then Yuukito, from across the cavern, “fucking idiots, just GO before you lose your chance-” and Kenshin kissed Edward like he would never get to again, their hands twined together.

“Your sword,” Edward said and Kenshin stared at him blankly, Edward shoved him in the chest. “We don’t know what’s waiting for us, take it, we’re gonna need it-” and Kenshin laughed wildly, scooped the weapon into his off-hand, his other holding tight to Edward’s. He had never felt like this before, grief and despair and elation and freedom and he felt overfull, as if he had just given up all hope of fully cataloging the emotion in the world.

“Ready?” Edward said, hand in hand and Kenshin just could not bear it any longer. “I love you,” he said desperately, and Edward grinned at him and squeezed his hand.

Together, they stepped into the light.


	8. Chapter 8

It was an old memory, and yet deeply treasured.

The blossoms that spring came early, fair pink brushed across spindly branches, a veritable wall of flowering trees that blocked the dojo from the main house. There were seven or eight of the trees, and it seemed like they had always been there. There was an old quilt kept sacred in the dojo, safe from the scavenging Elrics of the winter, and together they lay on it under the gentle shower of the cherry blossoms.

Edward had never quite understood his fascination with the flowering trees – he knew it was a deeply Japanese thing and appreciated that Kenshin enjoyed it so much, but he never could just get into it like Kenshin would, staring off into the branches above their heads, seeing beyond the trees into something that Edward would never be able to know. But still he would stay here with Kenshin, holding hands as they lay on their backs and stared through the three branches to the blue spring sky above.

Kenshin’s warm right hand in his left one. Fingers twined together, the breeze cool but not cold and stirring the tiny pink petals into a shower above them.

This quiet, calm moment – no sex, no violence – was one of his most treasured memories. He held on to it, deeply, as every other memory was emptied out of his head and swirled around, joining the endless cycle of memories and emotions that stood at the center of the Gate.

Even if he lost everything else, even if he lost his entire self, he would have this one memory, locked deep in his heart. And in that knowledge, he was free of fear.


	9. sleepin'

“Okay, so -” Kenshin with his hands on his hips, his long red hair tangled, and Edward thought about how long it would take to brush out that rat’s nest that had emerged and ignored whatever it was that Kenshin was saying completely. Which, judging by the exaggerated sigh and glower he was getting, was probably supposed to be somewhat important.

Instead of paying attention further, Edward yawned and rolled over. “I’m going back to sleep,” he announced, and commenced burying his face between the pillows. Kenshin groaned, louder this time, and yanked at the comforter that Edward held to himself in a steel grip.

“Get UP,” Kenshin said sharply.

“Fuckoff,” Edward murmured pleasantly, and yawned again. “You can crawl around in the sun like a fuckin’ duck or something I don’t even care. Sleepin’.”


	10. Chapter 10

“It’s cold as fuck,” Edward announced as he shoved aside the shoji door and padded in to the dojo. Instead of putting on a coat like a sane human being, Edward had wrapped himself in a blanket and looked a bit like a walking, talking burrito. Kenshin opened his eyes and sighed deeply, his meditation ruined.

“You know, I come out here alone for a reason,” he said, running the palms of his hands down the front of his hakama. Edward snorted a bit, closing the door behind himself and shivering.

“You bother me in my laboratory, I bother you in your dojo,” he said. “Toukakoukan.”

“Thought you didn’t believe in that any more,” Kenshin’s tone was mild, and more amused than anything.

Edward glowered at him, and then rocked on his feet. Kenshin glanced back slightly, gratified to see that this time Edward did remember to leave his boots outside, he was barefoot on the tatami floor. “Whatever, it’s cold as balls outside. What are you doing in here in just your kimono?”

“Meditating, Ed,” Kenshin said. He got up smoothly from the seiza position he had been sitting in, his joints barely even complained. Now that Edward was here, and he was not focused inward, the cold later winter (although now it was technically spring) air assaulted him and against all his training, he shivered.

“Hah, you ARE cold-” Edward said, holding out one arm and extending the blanket. Kenshin thought about his pride, shrugged it off, and ducked under Edward’s arm, letting the alchemist wrap them both in the heavy old quilt. Edward smiled at Kenshin, who bumped his forehead into Edward’s. “Idiot,” Edward murmured, as Kenshin kissed him.

When they parted, Edward’s ears were red. Kenshin slung his arm around Edward’s waist under the blanket. “Warm enough yet?” he teased, and Edward rolled his eyes.


	11. Chapter 11

Edward sighed, completely relaxed. He was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, his hair down and a now-ignored book open on his lap, while Kenshin slowly brushed his hair. He had worked all the tangles out long ago, and now it was just a soothing, almost sensual motion.

He did not brush his hair as often as he should – more often than not he would leave it tied back in a braid for days on end, until the braid itself was frazzled and half-undone . It was a holdover from those long hard days on the road, when hair care was the least of things on his mind. Fortunately for him, Kenshin seemed to like brushing his hair nearly as much as Edward liked having his hair brushed, so it worked out pretty well for them both.


	12. Chapter 12

Kenshin gripped Edward’s shoulders with both hands, although his fingers only dug into muscle on one side, he could barely keep a grip on the metal. It was warm to the touch, strange in this weather but it was a fleeting thought and Kenshin barely grasped the tail end of it as Edward moved again and sent electricity through all his nerves.

Edward was being slow, and careful, and cautious and damn him for that – he was trying to make Kenshin beg for it and he would not kowtow to it, there was no way that Edward Elric was going to reduce him to a nerveless, shaking mass who would beg-

And then Edward’s mouth on his skin, teeth on his neck and it was like being kissed by fire. Kenshin hissed through gritted teeth as Edward trailed lips down his throat. It was impossible to grasp him closer and shove him away at the same time and he could not make up his mind what he wanted to do, so instead he just held on tight as Edward continued to move steadily and slowly.

Where were his words? Kenshin gasped as Edward shifted them, one warm hand sliding between their bodies, the other supporting Kenshin’s hips. He had words, dammit, he had a whole litany of words he wanted to use against Edward right in this moment, but the only ones that came to mind were breathy and heavy and yes and there and fuck, Ed-

Edward’s mouth over his and he was drowning in sensation, in warmth and scent and taste; Edward pressing his legs further apart, pressing in deeper and splitting him open. He felt over-full and stretched out and he couldn’t get enough of the sensation, clawing at Edward’s back and giving in, finally, his voice barely registering, the words a reverent prayer.

Please, fuck-

He can’t take it, he’s not going to last. He grabs at Edward, fingernails raking red stripes across flesh, every muscle coiled tight in anticipation of his release – and then against all odds, Edward stops. The noise he makes is inhuman, the waves recede and Kenshin pants, head thrown back and eyes barely focused, and yet somehow he can pinpoint the smirk Edward wears.

Edward leans forward, his loose hair trailing over Kenshin’s chest, and he’s so sensitive that the hair lights up his nerves in neon. He hisses and Edward grins more. “Did you really think,” Edward’s voice is husky, thick with sex and fucking attractive, damn him all to hell, seriously - “I’m going to let you come that easily?”

Fucking brat.


	13. meetings

Rian Martin stood on the front porch, frozen in place. He had gone outside simply to get some fresh air, because while sunlight was not his favorite thing on the planet any more, he did miss seeing it occasionally. It had edged on to twilight, the sky was a rosy pink hue as the sun set in the west, but the thing that made him pause was the kid sitting perched on the railing.

He had his back to Rian, and was clearly ignoring him. Rian looked around – he was the only one on the porch – Kenshin was just inside, sitting on the couch, claiming that since the sun went down it was too cool out for him to be comfortable – and Edward, his Ed was in full wolf mode, running wild with the other resident werewolf out in the hills somewhere. (Roy of couse was still abed, because it took a worlds-ending calamity to make him rise before sundown.)

Rian walked to the edge of the porch steps, staring openly at the newcomer. He had white hair, like Yuukito’s – but he was a lot smaller, wiry and underfed. He smelled – he smelled a bit different from the other people at the ‘Sou, and Rian couldn’t quite peg the difference in scent just yet. He was also, surprisingly, barefoot.

The kid glanced back at Rian, as if noticing him for the first time, and then glanced back out at the lawn. He had a long stick clasped in one hand and he leaned forward slightly as he perched. Then there seemed to be a moment of clarity as he looked back at Rian again, realizing that Rian was looking at him. As if to be entirely certain, he looked past himself, and then back to Rian.

Perplexed, he pointed to himself. “You can see me?”

Rian rubbed one eye and cocked his head. “Yeah?”

The guy looked around, and then back to Rian. “No really, you see me? There aren’t even any kids around….”

Now Rian was a bit perplexed. “Why wouldn’t someone be able to see you, are you a ghost or something?”

“Huh,” he shrugged his shoulders. “You seem like you’re a bit old, to see someone like me.”

“I’m a vampire,” Rian said shortly. “I’m used to seeing spirits and shit.”


	14. Chapter 14

It was too hot to sleep in the house. Edward lay sprawled out over the bed, the sheets kicked to the floor, the fitted sheet sticking to his skin with sweat. The weather was ridiculous this early on in the year, he had argued well and long with Kenshin about shutting up the house, turning on the air conditioning – and the fact that Edward hated the air conditioning, hated the artificial smell of it, hated the feeling of living inside an icebox – but despite how much he hated it it was better than the alternative.

The alternative was now, lying in a puddle of sweat, wondering what happened to his other half and cursing the fact that they didn’t have a ceiling fan in their bedroom. He would have to have that remedied, if he knew the first fucking thing about wiring he would do it himself, as he had been expressly forbidden to inventively transmute any of the load-bearing walls in the house.

Where was Kenshin?

They usually retired at about the same time, and even in the heat Edward missed the comfortable feel of a body next to his own. Kenshin smelled a particular way, hard to describe but fascinating. Edward rolled over on his side and stared at Kenshin’s side of the bed, tried to imagine him in it and instead succeeded in only making himself wistful.

He sat up with a groan, the sheet trying to come with him. He shucked off the tee shirt he had been wearing and padded into the hallway clad in only his boxer shorts. Fuck the others, there were so many other Edwards around here that everyone had seen him naked and then some and he was beyond caring.

There was a congregation in the kitchen. Nicholas Elric and Rian Martin were sitting side-by-side on the cool tile floor, with one of the wolves laying before them in wolf form. Whichever wolf it was – hard to tell, the only light on was the stove light – he was lying on his back, belly exposed to the world, and thumping his tail hard as Rian scritched his upper chest idly.

They were sitting in front of the refrigerator.

“Move it,” Edward commanded, and Nick looked up at him idly. He was – at some point Edward would have to have an exactly family tree drawn – in some method or manner related to Edward, descended down a few generations, a kid who actually belonged in the here-and-now instead of Edward’s abrupt displacement to modern times. He didn’t like Nick very much, which was a fair trade as Nick didn’t like him.

“Shove off,” Nick said. “We’re comfortable.”

“I’m thirsty, move.”

“Tap’s over there,” Rian nodded at the sink, whose access was not blocked off like the fridge. Edward growled at the dark-haired teen, who was unimpressed by his posturing. Rian Martin – whichever one this was, there were two of them here and they were identical, Edward didn’t know which Rian belonged to which other Elric, although he was willing to bet that the creature he was giving belly scritches to was the werewolf Edward – he had no fear of Edward. No one gave him any respect any more, and it was tiring. “I didn’t want tap water.”

“Tough,” Rian said. “We ain’t moving.”

Edward thought about all the ways he could get them to quickly move, up to and including some rather unpleasant transmutations, but exhaustion had set in at this point. Instead he settled for a muttered “fuck you,” before sulking his way to the door outside.

He wouldn’t be surprised to find Kenshin in the dojo. His other half had been spending a lot of time there recently, a lot more than usual and instead of the darkened dojo, Edward spotted Kenshin laying on an old quilt, head pillowed on his arms. The crescent moon gave off enough light to glint off his hair, so vividly red in the daylight, and Edward trotted over in his direction, prepared to scold him animatedly about the fact that the house had turned into a fucking oven.

The cherry blossom trees were just now blooming, they had no reached their full resplendent glory just yet, but they were well on their way to a gorgeous hanami. Edward sighed, his hands on his hips, and looked down at Kenshin, who he had taken for awake but who was in fact sleeping peacefully, a lone petal of sakura lying on his nose.

Edward could not stay mad at him. Kenshin had this magical attribute, every time Edward saw him he just couldn’t be mad any longer. Edward looked up at the sky as a breeze rustled the tree limbs and sent a flurry of cherry blossom petals loose into the night breeze.

He sat down on the blanket, thankful for the cool breeze. Perhaps there would be a break in this insipid heat soon. Edward yawned, and looked down at Kenshin’s face and smiled. Then he slid down to lay next to him, the cool fresh night air having done the trick and exhaustion taken its toll.

The last thing he remembered before he sank into his dreams was Kenshin, putting his arm over Edward’s side and pulling him close.


	15. never ending

Rian Martin stood precariously on the railing, one hand on the trellis that reached up the side of the porch. It had been grey all day, with a low ceiling of clouds that made it feel more like October than April - but that really didn’t bother him that much. In fact, the grey day made it easier for him as a vampire to be outside, since while daylight was not lethal, it was, at the very least, headache-inducing. 

The weather and the daylight didn’t bother him one bit, because he was grinning widely. “You came back,” he said happily. 

 

Jack was crouched, balanced on the very top of the trellis, and it almost seemed as if he had on weight to him. Rian knew better, that appearances were easily deceiving when it came to spirits, and a very faint pink tinged the tips of Jack’s ears. “Yeah, well,” Jack dangled his staff from one hand, looking out at the grounds. “I can’t really stay long, someone’s got to bring winter to the southern hemisphere.” 

"Well, I’m glad you came back, if only for a little while," Rian tightened his fingers on the trellis, a flush spread across his own face. "I missed you." 

Jack knocked Rian on the head lightly with his staff. “I’ll come back every year, you know I will.” He tilted his head back, and couldn’t keep the smile from his face. “I’ve never been missed before, though.” 

"Well, you’ll always be missed here," Rian said softly, and Jack leapt down from his perch, landing lightly on the railing beside Rian. It was strange, the tingling feeling in Rian’s hand when Jack shyly took it, but the two immortal teenagers smiled at each other and for this single moment, everything in the world was all right.


	16. chasm

It was not unusual for there to be a low level of background noise at the ‘Sou - so this particular din didn’t usually warrant any extra attention given. However, Edward had been trying to take a nap on the couch, and with the windows open given the nice spring day, the row happening outside was infringing on his ability to sleep. 

It was usually up to Kenshin to play peacemaker, mostly because Edward had no patience with his other selves and was more likely to resort to handing out punches like Halloween candy. However, Kenshin was not in the vicinity, and Edward wasn’t about to go tattle. He’d resolve this himself. 

He opened the front door, to be greeted by two fully-grown wolves snarling, and Sariel - the Ed with wings, the second arrival here - hovering just out of reach. 

Edward surveyed the situation, and then closed the front door.

There were things he would get involved in - but when the werewolves and the angels started trading blows, he excused himself from the conflict. Some of these dorks were immortal - he was definitely NOT. 

"What’s the ruckus?" Kenshin was coming down the stairs, a laundry basket propped up against his hip. 

"Sariel’s taunting the werewolves," Edward dutifully reported, as from out on the lawn there came a loud yelp, followed by a whine. 

Kenshin sighed, and Edward helpfully opened the door to the basement for him. “They’re fighting AGAIN? What is it about spring that makes everyone want to express their dominance?” 

"Mating season," Edward muttered. 

"We’re human, Ed," Kenshin called as he disappeared into the basement. 

"Speak for yourself," Roy Mustang, who had been standing in the doorway to the kitchen, said. Edward jumped a mile, and then glared at the angel. 

"Who asked you?"


	17. not yet alone

Kennichi Himura trotted along the edge of the lake, the sunlight shimmering off the surface. He was far from the ‘Sou, back here deep in the woods, and it was peaceful. He crouched at the edge of the water, and looked out over the lake. 

This was part of his territory - he had claimed out all the land around the ‘Sou years ago. There were plenty of wolves in these woods, but they were real wolves, not interested in infringing on the territory of a werewolf. He exhaled, and scratched a hand through his shaggy red hair. 

Things were weirdly tense at home. It wasn’t unusual for there to be spats between people - it had taken a good, long time for the Winchesters to warm up to the fact that there was a werewolf on-grounds that they weren’t permitted to hunt, for instance - but the general atmosphere had soured. 

There was a whoop from somewhere above, and a shouted “INCOMING~” before a large white streak cannonball’d into the lake from above. Kennichi leaped to his feet as Sariel surfaced, way far out from shore. 

The blond angel waved toward Kennichi. “Yo, ‘nichi, is that you? Thought I recognized your pasty white ass!” 

Kennichi dropped into a crouch, his ears as dark red as his hair. When he shifted back from wolf form he was naked, and usually there wasn’t anyone around to see him. “What the hell are you doing, birdboy?” he yelled back. 

"Swimming, what does it-" Abruptly, Sariel’s head went under. Kennichi waited patiently, but he did not resurface. Concerned, Kennichi rose to his feet to get a better view, and then Sariel’s head broke water far closer to shore. "FUCK, I forgot the automail weighs a ton in water," he spat water. "What’s up?"


	18. paper bag

Edward - the werewolf Ed, he was almost a full head taller than Kenshin’s own, and had no automail - was pulling things out of the refrigerator, sniffing them, and making the most interesting faces. 

"If it’s not good, don’t put it back in the fridge," Kenshin said as he washed the dishes that wouldn’t fit in the dishwasher. “Pitch it.” 

Edward pulled a bag of leftovers from some restaurant excursion and opened it, and then held it far from his face. “Is there anything in here that isn’t a science experiment of some kind?” 

"I haven’t been to the grocer this weekend, so doubtful." Kenshin put the plates he had rinsed in the strainer, and glanced over his shoulder at Edward. "Don’t put that back." 

Edward slumped forward and groaned. “There isn’t even any beer, what the hell? How am I supposed to survive on rotten chicken and-” he poked at an opaque pitcher, and then lifted the lid. “Why is there a pitcher of straight vodka?” 

"Why are you asking me questions that I don’t know the answer to?" 

"I thought you were the boss around here." Edward gave up and closed the door to the fridge. "Fuck it, I’m ordering a pizza. Maybe I can bribe the driver to pick up some beer on his way." 

"Good luck with that, I can’t think of a single place that’ll deliver here any longer." Kenshin nodded to the old, yellowed papers pinned to the freezer door with magnets. "People get excitable, pizza delivery people get traumatized, somehow we don’t get arrested." 

"People get excitable?" Edward repeated, and then sighed. "There’s a dragon on the roof, yeah. Okay, I can see people getting excitable about that." 

"Among other things," Kenshin murmured. "Would you please put that stuff in the trash?"


	19. dazzled

The only thing that they could hear was the steady, rhythmic thumps of a headboard into the wall. Edward lay on his side, the pillow folded over his ears, and stared at the wall. Kenshin sighed and turned over onto his back. 

"I guess we should be grateful that they’re not louder?" he said philosophically, and Edward gritted his teeth. 

"He moved the bed against this wall, they’re doing it on purpose." The smug expression of his twin was haunting him, if he wasn’t afraid of seeing them en flagantre he would go rearrange some faces right now. 

"So they’re taunting us by having loud sex?" Kenshin sat up on his elbows. "That’s really sad, I can’t hear them, just the bed." 

Edward hadn’t stirred. The thought of seeing Roy - not his Roy, of course, he was with this other Ed who he didn’t like at all - but the thought of seeing them, caught in the act, had left him transfixed. He jumped at a warm hand covering his crotch, and Kenshin breathed near his ear. “That’s turning you on, hmm?” 

"Shut UP," Edward folded the pillow over his ears tighter, even as Kenshin slide a hand into the waistband of his boxers. 

"I bet we could drown them out," Kenshin’s breath was warm on his neck, and Edward stiffened. Kenshin’s hand had already cupped him, this time inside the tight confines of his shorts, and Edward really wanted to feel if Kenshin was as turned on right now as he was. 

"I don’t know," he said carefully. "They’re being plenty loud." 

"Not as loud as you will be," Kenshin encouraged Edward to roll over and he did, finally releasing the pillow so that he could tangle both his hands in Kenshin’s hair. "So let’s make some noise."


	20. pounding

"Stop, stop stop stop," Edward gasped, beating at Roy’s back with his open hand. It took a moment before Roy stilled, and he stared down at Edward, clearly bewildered by the command. Sweat had made Roy’s hair go funny, sticking up at unnatural angles, and Edward exhaled, focusing on something other than Roy. 

"What," Roy asked, confusion and irritation battling for supremacy in his voice. "What is so import-" 

This time he heard it too, a stifled gasp followed by a string of profanity, muffled by the wall between them. Roy cocked his head and Edward shifted a little, his leg sliding down Roy’s shoulder. 

After a long moment, Roy laughed. Edward frowned up at him, and he ran his fingers through Edward’s bangs. “Sounds like they’re having a good time,” he murmured, leaning in close, pressing Edward’s knee to his chest as he did so. Edward squirmed against him, the angle had shifted and right now Roy was pressed uncomfortably inside him. Roy watched Edward move, and then moved a little himself, mostly with his hips. 

The whine that Edward let loose at that could only be heard by dogs. “I know you can be louder,” Roy murmured, jogging his hips and making the whole bed move with the motion. “If they think that they can challenge us….” 

Edward grabbed at Roy’s neck, pulling him down into a messy kiss as Roy started to move in earnest again. The headboard was thumping against the wall with some regularity and he could hardly think straight with Roy on him like this, but all the same he could hear the increase in volume of their neighbors to match theirs. 

He pressed his head back against the pillow and levered his hips up. There was no way he would let them win!


	21. sorry to hear

"It’s really weird seeing yourself as a vampire," Rian Martin said, sitting cross-legged on the lawn. The afternoon was cool, despite the beautiful bright sunny day, but it was still far too pretty to be hiding indoors. Besides, the colonel was on a tangent about something to do with botanical alchemy and was ranting mostly at one of the other Eds, so Rian thought it wise to clear out before he got drawn into the debate. 

"Speak for yourself," his erstwhile twin said. This other Rian was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, and sitting mostly in the shade of the house. He didn’t seem too badly affected by the sunlight, but it was clear it was just a touch too bright for him outside. "I wasn’t always a vampire, you know. I used to be just like you." 

"It’s still weird," Rian argued, his legs sprawled out in front of him. "Where I come from, vampires don’t exist." 

"Really?" the other Rian didn’t lift his head from where it was pillowed on his arms. "You sure?" 

"Well, that I know of." It was a concession he was willing to make, he’d seen plenty enough weird things to know he didn’t know the half of it. "I thought you needed to sleep during the day." 

"Nah, Roy’s the one who sacks out like sleep is going out of style." Rian scratched his jaw. "Besides, I was hoping…." he trailed off, and sighed. 

"You were hoping to see your other boyfriend before he goes out of season," Rian supplied helpfully. 

"He’s not my boyfriend!" The vampire snapped back with irritation. Rian grinned despite himself, and received a sour look in return. 

"Coulda fooled me," he said. 

"You can’t even see him," Rian said. "I don’t know what you’re so smug for."


	22. addicted

Kobayashi Takeo kicked his feet over the edge of the couch, lying on his back with the controller in his hands. Nick at least was sitting upright, and the television was turned up way too loud. Edward stood in the doorway to his lab and glared daggers at the back of the couch, but there was no way that either of the teenagers could see his contempt without him storming over there to engage. 

Which was getting really, really fucking tempting. 

"You’re not even twenty-four and you’ve turned into a bitter old man," Kenshin teased him lightly from the dark green couch in the center of the lab. It was smaller but equally as dinged up as the one in the den, and Edward turned to scowl at Kenshin. 

"I’m not a bitter old man," Edward muttered. "They’re just loud and annoying." 

"Shall I get you a cane? You can chase them with it, if you’d like." 

Edward closed the door, shutting out the worst of the noise emanating from the video game, and the two kids playing it. “You get me a cane and I’ll shove it up your ass, Himura.” 

"Kinky," Kenshin murmured, but he was smiling. 

He didn’t even know when Kenshin had wandered into the laboratory with him, but Kenshin had a tendency to do that whenever Edward locked himself in the old converted coal room for more than half the day. It was in part to keep tabs on him, as well as to make sure that he wasn’t coming up with something more half-baked than usual on the research front. 

(Kenshin still had not forgiven him for the time he tried to seal a demon in a glass bottle with a Devil’s trap on the bottom. Hey, it was a solid plan in theory….)


	23. dinner table

Edward picked up his plate and peered studiously at the table underneath it. Roy - not his Roy, the inner voice reminded him despite their striking similarities - paused, fork to his mouth, to watch him. 

"I’m going to regret asking this," Mustang said. 

"Then don’t." Satisfied, Edward placed the plate back on the table. Rian nudged him with a knee, and Edward glanced over at him. 

"You can’t tell if the table’s been defiled without a blacklight," Rian reminded him, and Edward sighed. 

"Is it too much to ask for a place to eat that hasn’t been covered in someone else’s spunk?" Edward asked philosophically. 

"No one’s had sex on the dining room table that I’ve known of," Roy said, clearly amused. "It’s too public." 

"Being public didn’t stop the chorus last night," Rian muttered, and this time Edward nudged Rian’s knee with his own. Rian realized which Roy he was speaking to, flushed red, and studied the table instead. 

Roy, for his part, did not seem concerned. It was a marked difference from how Edward’s own Roy would have reacted - but then again, how would HIS Roy have reacted to these circumstances in the first place? He would never know. “If the … noise … disturbs you, might I suggest transmuting thicker walls?” 

"We’re down the hall," Edward said through gritted teeth. "Your sex competitions are getting tiresome." 

Roy was clearly having trouble keeping the smirk off his face. “If you’re jealous of my ability, Fullmetal-“ 

"Oh god," Rian said softly, as Edward slammed both of his hands down on the table. The dishware rattled, and his chair nearly went over backwards. 

"Don’t you DARE call me that," Edward roared, and there was a long silence following his words. 

"Colonel," Rian said, and Edward sat back down.


	24. do it better

"We are not even going to talk about how poorly you hold a sword," Kenshin’s voice was firm, and despite how loud it was he did not appear to be yelling. It was also coming from somewhere right outside his window. Roy Mustang looked at the clock - it was a little after eight - and groaned. 

Pulling aside the blinds confirmed his worst fears. Dusk had painted the sky fabulous shades of rose, and he winced. How many years had it been since he saw true sunlight without that familiar spike of pain behind his eyes? It wasn’t something to dwell on, though - it wasn’t like vampirism had a cure, and even if it DID, he would not be able to exist in Edward’s world otherwise. 

Speaking of his Edward, he was lined up outside with two other Eds, Rian, Sam, and a squirrelly-looking dark-haired kid he didn’t recognize on first glance. There was a motley assortment of wooden weapons assembled among them, and Roy realized with a grin that Kenshin was once again trying to inject some form of civility into their fighting styles. 

This was going to fail, and fail badly; like it had the first three or five times Kenshin had tried this, and yet still he kept at it. If there was one thing to be said for the red-haired samurai, he was certainly persistent. 

There was a brief spark of blue light, the Edward on the end - the one that belonged to Kenshin, he used his alchemy with the most frequency - had transmuted his wooden weapon into a spear. He twirled it expertly, and Kenshin immediately took a defensive pose with his own wooden bokken. 

Somehow Kenshin flipped Edward and broke the spear in two places, all before Roy could blink.


	25. angelic

The roof was well-worn and the shingles scuffed from being used as a nesting perch by one very large, affectionate dragon. Fortunately, the dragon didn’t tend to sleep on the eaves, which made his landing a lot lighter than usual. 

Edward (called Sariel, something he bristled at but at least it made him stand out from the crowd), slid his bare feet along the roof as he landed, wings fanned out behind him. The moon was hiding behind clouds heavy with the threat of rain, and the wind was kicked higher than usual, blowing his hair back and feathers out. 

There was something in the air he didn’t quite like, and in the many years since his status changed he had learned to go with his gut. If something was wrong, he knew. He just wished he knew WHAT. 

If anyone here had a sixth sense, it was Himura. The man knew when trouble was brewing a week off. Edward walked carefully along the top of the roof, not bothering to put his wings away, the pinon feathers dragging lightly along the shingles behind him. It made him feel better to do rounds like this, to coast quietly over the woods and to pace the house, marking off the territories and ensuring that all was clear. 

Certain that his beat was quiet, Edward glided silently over the lawn, landing and only sliding a bit on the damp grass. He stretched his wings out, and as he put them away he lifted his head to glare at the dark figure on the porch. 

Vampire Roy (not HIS Roy, his inner voice screamed), nodded at Edward, a bag of blood clutched in one hand. “Doing the rounds again?” he asked, and Edward cocked his head aggressively. 

"Yeah, and what’s it to you?"


	26. the children

Without blinking, Kenshin moved his head to the side a fraction, just enough so that the soccer ball that came bouncing through the dining room brushed by his face by a hair’s breath. The black-and-white ball bounced along the table at a decent rate of speed, rebounded off the wall and was pursued first by a fully-grown, mottled gray wolf and then by Nick, who was yelling at the wolf and wearing only one shoe. 

Edward did not cease shoveling food into his mouth at a high rate of speed, only looking up to glare daggers at Nick as he passed, bumping the back of Edward’s dining room chair in his hurry. “Oi!” he shouted behind Nick, but his mouth was full of food and instead he gargled the syllable. 

Kenshin looked at Edward and raised an eyebrow. “Don’t look at ME like that,” Edward muttered, stabbing his fork into the scrambled eggs viciously. “They’re half yours, too.” 

About thirty seconds later, both Takeo and Rian came thundering down the steps, both of them fully dressed, and Takeo with Nick’s other shoe. “Which way?” Takeo asked, and Kenshin pointed to the kitchen door, that led to outside. 

"Do you ever think about moving out?" Edward asked around a mouthful of eggs. 

"All the time," Kenshin sighed, and put his fork down. 

"And we haven’t because….?" 

"If I recall correctly, you were throwing a fit about having to move all your research, and we both realized you own more books than we can store in an apartment." Kenshin smiled despite this. "Besides, I think you’d miss the chaos." 

The soccer ball bounced against the dining room window, and somehow the glass held. Kenshin winced at the impact, and Edward glared at the window. “Or you’d miss causing it yourself,” he amended.


	27. in your dreams

Rian sat at the kitchen table, which was smaller than the ancient wooden monstrosity in the dining room, and kicked his legs. He had both his elbows on the table, his chin in his hands, and he was watching with some delight as Edward and Roy tried to cook around each other. 

"You are enjoying this far too much," Sariel said, sitting catty-corner to Rian. He had a large, old book in a language Rian didn’t recognize, but he was not reading it, he was watching from behind its heavy pages. 

Edward - Rian’s Ed, his hair in a high ponytail and wearing trousers and a button-up shirt, he was wielding a whisk covered in pancake batter and arguing animatedly with Roy. This Roy was Sariel’s, and he seemed entirely unimpressed by Edward’s argument (and the fact that this Edward was, flat-foot, only a hair shorter than he). 

Roy was trying to say something, but he was overridden by Edward’s almost-constant rant, which was rising quickly in volume. “Is he always like this?” Sariel asked, referring to his other self’s escalating temper. 

"Only when there’s a Mustang involved," Rian said. "He doesn’t lose his temper this easily when it’s just me." 

"Bullshit," Sariel said, and Rian turned to glare at the younger version of his colonel. 

The door to the basement slammed open, causing them both to jump, and a third Edward stood there, his eyes red-rimmed. “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON UP HERE?” 

Sariel and Rian looked at each other, and both pointed to Rian’s Ed. That Edward had stopped arguing with Roy, and both of them were staring, a little surprised, at the arrival of the third Edward. 

"Man," Rian sighed, as the third Edward stormed toward the other two. "What I wouldn’t give for some popcorn."


	28. raw

"Okay, look," Edward said, when he took a step back and was almost tripped by the wolf standing behind him, watching the counter with tongue lolled out of his mouth. "You are not an actual dog, this is bullshit, GO AWAY." 

The wolf - he couldn’t tell which wolf it was, he couldn’t tell fucking wolves apart unless there was a very distinctive color difference - cocked his head, but did not shift back to human form or attempt to speak. The werewolf Edward could not speak in his wolf form - but Kennichi was capable. 

He was trying to make dinner, dammit - he had to prove that he was not as incompetent as SOME Elrics he could speak the name of when it came to cooking; and he would prepare food for him and Rian while the rest of them all could all kindly fuck off - but there was a very large, clearly hungry wolf eyeing his chicken and this was annoying as hell. 

"Go AWAY," Edward tried again, and the wolf wouldn’t budge. He thought dirty thoughts about transmuting a collar and muzzle on the wolf, and resumed chopping the onion still on the counter. 

"Who let you in the kitchen?" The voice belonged to a Roy, and Edward did not turn around to see which one. Despite everything, the voice always caused a chill to shoot up his spine, the memories of so many happy moments that he had buried deep in his gut would burble uncomfortably to the surface. 

"Go the hell away, Mustang," Edward muttered, and stared at his onion. 

"Not you," Roy said. "HIM." Edward looked up, confused, to see Roy was pointing at the wolf, who had hung his head and flattened his ears. "What is it with you and chicken?"


	29. who isn't

Nick sat on the grass, his legs sprawled out in front of him, with Kennichi laying in wolf form beside him. They were resting, while Takeo and Rian ran laps around the large, circular driveway that ran before the old house and the garage. 

"I notice that the cars have been gone a while," Nick said, tossing a piece of gravel at the driveway. It was dark now, just past sunset, and while the porch light and garage light was on, there was little other ambient light to the area. 

Kennichi lifted his head and yawned, exposing all the teeth in his mouth. “Yeah, they’re off doing whatever the hell it is they do. Save the world, shag some angels, buttsex, whatever.” 

Nick threw another pebble, as Takeo and Rian trudged past. Takeo was wheezing, he could hear his friend coming a mile away, and Rian, while breathing hard, did not sound like the exercise was nearly as exerting for him. “We should go check out their place while they’re gone.” 

"What?" Kennichi flicked his ears. "You got a death wish, or something?" 

"Man, what if they don’t come back? We can lay our claim to the sweet garage apartment." The crickets were out in full force, aside from the steady crunching of gravel and Takeo’s wheezing, it was the loudest sound in the still night air. "Just imagine it, no more being kept awake by stupidly loud sex." 

"You’re just a light sleeper." Kennichi flopped over. Nick looked at him, and Kennichi cocked his head. "Aren’t you going to rub my belly?" 

"No," Nick said. "You’re not a dog, why do you do that?" He rubbed his hands on his upper arms. "Is that some sort of sex thing, does it turn you on or something?" 

Kennichi huffed. “NO.”


	30. left hand

One of the benefits of the master bedroom meant that it got the full brunt of the morning sun. Filtered through the glass and the messily-closed blinds, it created a slow-bake environment until the two bodies sprawled across the bed finally started to stir. Edward woke first, burrowed half under Kenshin, his automail arm tucked under his chest and his head nestled securely against Kenshin’s throat. 

He inhaled, sighed, and closed his eyes. Even despite the stifling warmth, he did not want to move. But soon Kenshin would wake - if he had not already - and they would clamber out of bed and shower and get on with their day. 

These few moments, though - they were absolute bliss. Safety and security and comfort; things that he had never presumed he would be allowed to have. And yet, he kept moving forward, toward a truth that would cleave him from the same comfort he took solace in. 

It was too early to think melancholy thoughts like that. Edward yawned, and started to move, pushing himself upright with both hands. Kenshin’s hand shot out, grabbed his flesh arm by the wrist, and yanked him back down, face-first into the pillows. 

He huffed into the pillow. “I knew you were awake,” he muttered, and Kenshin shoved him in the flesh shoulder. 

"You’re gloomy," Kenshin said, his voice thick with sleep. "I don’t like it when you’re gloomy." 

"I’m not gloomy," Edward rolled up onto his side and fought the terror in his gut at the thought that Kenshin already knew. "I just woke up." 

Kenshin captured Edward’s hand - his real, flesh hand - and pulled it toward him, kissing the knuckles. Edward flushed from hairline on down, and Kenshin smiled at him. “You are a horrible liar,” he said softly.


	31. too blurry

"I do not," Edward repeated, as Rian adjusted the frames on his face, "need GLASSES." 

Rian ignored him, adjusting the frames again and brushing his fingers through Edward’s bangs. “I think they look fine,” he said. “You’re always squinting at things, probably ‘cause you read all the time in crappy lighting. This’ll help!” 

Edward glared up at Rian over the frames, and Rian smiled cheerfully. “They look good on you, promise.” 

"I look like a librarian," Edward declared, and crossed his arms to pout. 

"Are you - are you seriously pouting?" Rian put his hands on Edward’s shoulders, and knocked his forehead into Edward’s. "How are you older than me, again?" 

Before Rian could pull away, Edward captured his jaw with his hand, and kissed him. Rian jerked, a little surprised, but Edward had him, and after a second he relaxed. When they parted, Rian had flushed red, and Edward grinned lazily. “That’s how,” he murmured, and Rian shoved him. 

Edward flopped back on the bed and laughed. Rian rolled his eyes, still flushed red, and snapped shut the case the glasses came in. “Just try them?” he suggested. “I’m sure they’ll help.” 

"I can see fine," Edward complained. "This is just because you like me in glasses, isn’t it." 

Rian climbed on the bed next to him. “I dunno, I think the librarian look is sexy,” he teased, and Edward’s eyebrows went up. “We should put your hair up in a bun, get you a blouse and a skirt-“ 

"Hold on a second," Edward said. 

"I wonder how you’d look in heels," Rian mused, sitting back on his knees. 

"I didn’t agree to that," Edward said. "You have to listen to me, I outrank you." 

Rian straddled Edward, his hands spread on Edward’s chest. “I bet you’d look hot.”


	32. in the red

Roy’s fangs on his neck were delicate, a strange feeling as he traced the skin down to the best possible location. The sensation of those needle-sharp teeth on his bared neck made Edward shudder, and he couldn’t help the noise that escaped when Roy finally bit him. 

He couldn’t move his head, it was held firm by one of Roy’s hands, tight in his hair; but he really didn’t want to. That intoxicating warm feeling as Roy drank, there was no pain except for that brief flare of the initial bite, nothing but warmth and sensation and lust. 

They didn’t do this as often here, Roy had an entire fridge full of fresh blood bags he and Rian could both feast on. There was not a need for fresh blood, but werewolf blood tickled the senses of a vampire like no other. Edward licked his lips and swallowed, as Roy lifted his head, mouth stained with Edward’s own blood. 

There was a clatter, and Roy looked up sharply. Edward turned his head slowly, a little drowsy from the blood loss, and got to witness one of the other Edwards standing stock-still in the hallway, flushed solid red. Edward had left the door open. 

Roy grinned wickedly, his eyes turned gold by Edward’s blood. He held out his hand to the doorway, and practically purred. “You can join us, if you’d like.” 

After a long moment, the Edward in the hallway gave up and fled, leaving his dishes overturned on the floor. Roy laughed, hearty and free, and Edward poked him. 

"That was mean," he scolded, and Roy captured his hand and kissed the palm, leaving a smear of blood behind. 

"I would," he murmured against Edward’s hand. "Drink his blood, if he accepted." 

"I know," Edward said, and kissed him.


	33. lullabye

"What are you humming?" Roy asked, and Edward started, surprised out of his reverie. 

"Humming?" Edward repeated, nonplussed. They were in bed together, for the first time in a long while - Edward had been off doing THINGS, important THINGS that for some reason he felt he needed to keep from Roy. Roy didn’t so much mind anymore, he had gotten used to Edward’s quirks and besides, it wasn’t as if he never kept anything from Edward. 

It was nice, just to lay together. Edward had a book, as he often did, and Roy lay on his side watching Edward read. It was a fun thing to do, as Edward was an active reader, his face contorted and he would occasionally read entire words or phrases with his mouth, trying the words without actually speaking them. It was adorable. 

Tonight, however, it was a simple melody that Edward hummed, notes strung together almost haphazardly, the tune soft and almost motherly. 

And Edward didn’t appear to notice that he was doing it at all. 

Roy ran his fingers through Edward’s hair, tugging at the long ends. “You were humming to yourself,” he said, and then he started humming the tune right back. 

"Oh," Edward said, a faint blush pink on his nose. "That’s, uh, that’s a lullaby my mother used to sing when she was putting Alphonse down." He scratched his nose with a finger, and looked embarrassed. 

"That’s lovely," Roy said. Edward looked surprised at his response, and looked away. 

"Thought you were gonna make fun of me," he said gruffly, and Roy laid his head on his arms, watching Edward still. "Al had trouble sleeping after mom died, so I had to sing it to him to calm him when we slept together on the floor in dad’s study."


	34. empty bar

Kenshin stood in front of the refrigerator in the basement and sighed. It was an older model, the one that once stood in the kitchen until Edward accidentally lit the ice maker on fire. (There had never been a satisfactory explanation as to why the ice maker had been lit on fire, or how, for that matter - but one thing Kenshin had learned was that when he heard Edward go “oops, oops, oh SHIT” he simply Did Not Want To Know.) The freezer portion may have been out of commission, but the actual fridge portion still worked, and they used that to store the booze. 

Most of the time. 

Right now, most of the long-neck bottles were gone, there was a mysterious, wrapped object nestled in the middle of the shelf and the remaining bottles of beer were crowded around it. The hard liquor in the door was untouched. 

So now, the question remained - did Kenshin really want to know what that wrapped bundle was, and whose fault was it? 

The majority of the residents didn’t drink much - the werewolf Ed, the angel Roy, and Rian’s Edward were the ones who often made the biggest dent in the reserves. The hunters, thankfully, kept to their own stash; the lot of them were functioning alcoholics and generally bad influences. Kenshin reasoned that they spent most of their grocery budget on beer, judging only by the recycling bin in the garage. 

He sighed, and leaned his arm on the open door. He didn’t want to touch the bundle, but his curiosity was getting the better of him. It was the wrong size and shape to be a human head - he hadn’t forgiven Kennichi for that prank yet, either - but there was no telling WHAT it could be.


	35. too close to home

"So," Roy asked, standing in the doorway to the bedroom. "I have to admit, I am morbidly curious. How did I die?" 

Edward jumped, his back had been to the door, sitting at the desk crowded against the wall near the closet. Rian must have left the door open when he left earlier, and Edward had been so lost in his book that he hadn’t noticed Mustang’s presence until he spoke. He turned sharply in his seat and glared over his reading glasses at the man, standing there so casually. 

"That’s," Edward seethed, and swallowed the words that bubbled up in his gut, nestling darkly there. "No. I don’t have to talk about that with you, that’s none of your business." 

It had taken years, long years to bury that wound. It no longer festered, but it was never going to truly heal. And here he was confronted with not one, but two mirrors of the man he had loved so deeply … men who were already content with their own versions of himself. 

This place did THINGS to people’s emotions, and he certainly did not like it one bit. 

This Roy was one who shared a similar history with his own - not quite the same, but not as strikingly different as the vampire. Edward sighed and shoved his glasses up his nose, thinking dark thoughts about the military and finding somewhere in there the composure he had carefully cultured over the years. 

"I’m sorry," Mustang said after a moment. "I didn’t mean to dredge up old wounds." He actually sounded genuine in his apology, and more unguarded than his Roy would have ever been. 

"My past is none of your concern," Edward said shortly. "I’ll thank you to stay out of my business, and keep to your own."


	36. deviation

Edward was leaning back in the porch chair, his bare feet crossed on the railing and challenging steadily the Law of Gravity, trying to push his balancing act as far as it could go. It wasn’t quite dark yet, Roy was still asleep and Rian had skedaddled off to who-knows-where, running amuck with his erstwhile twin and the three musketeers. 

He was bored as hell. That was probably good, all things considered - the first few months it was hard to be bored what with the hunters eyeing him and his kin as if they had giant red targets painted on their backs, but fortunately they were all concerned with their own business at current and left him well enough alone. 

He sighed, and folded his arms behind his head, just in time to witness a kid with white hair land lightly on the railing beside his feet. 

There were stranger occurrences to be had here, so that really didn’t faze him as much as it would have normally. The kid was looking around like he didn’t see Edward, so Edward nudged his leg with a bare foot. A shiver ran up his spine, touching the kid felt like a blast of the arctic. “Hey ,you looking for someone?” 

He jumped like he was shot. Edward watched with some amusement as he leaped away along the railing, staring at Edward with bewilderment. “You can see me?” 

"Duh." Edward shifted. "Why, shouldn’t I?" 

"Aren’t you an adult?" He was being peered at like a lab specimen, Edward didn’t care for that. 

"Depends on who you ask." He shrugged, not moving his arms from behind his head. "Question still stands, you looking for someone?" 

"Yeah," the kid said, straightening. "I’ll find him elsewhere." 

Edward watched him disappear off the porch. “Suit yourself.”


	37. merry

It was still cool enough that the air conditioning did not need to be turned on - the windows were open and the clatter of dishware and the chatter of many different people floated through, carried on the cool night air. Kenshin smiled, leaning against the porch railing, and stared off into the night. 

The strange thing was that this was comfortable, now. Certainly there were the lion’s share of fights to be broken up, Elrics were largely territorial beasts and having so many coexisting in the same environment was a case study waiting to happen. There was one thing for certain, life in the Kansaki Sou was never dull. 

Laughter close by caught his attention, and Kenshin glanced over his shoulder. The front door banged noisily - they had to install a screen door to keep the dogs from roaming as they pleased - and it was Sariel, dragging his Roy by one hand and grinning widely. Kenshin watched with a smile as the two angels disappeared into the darkness, leaving a trail of feathers behind them. 

"Ah, there you are," Edward said as he popped his head out the door. Kenshin straightened and took the barest moment to be certain - before relaxing his posture. This was his Edward, he did not even need to check for the ring. 

"Tell me you’re not looking for me in regards to clean-up duty," Kenshin said, and Edward grinned. The light coming through the windows made his hair shine like the sun, even in the darkness outside. 

"I’m sure you’ll be in turns relieved and horrified to know it’s the werewolf and the vampires," Edward reported dutifully. Kenshin sighed, and Edward bumped his shoulder into Kenshin’s companionably. "Nice night," he said, and Kenshin put his arm around Edward. 

"Now it is."


	38. repeat until

Like clockwork, Kenshin rose before dawn. In the summer that was earlier than usual, but he rolled out of bed silently, slipping out from under Edward’s heavy arm without disturbing him. He always paused, here - he made sure Edward had settled again, rolling onto his side and curling into a pillow - before he left the bedroom behind. 

Pre-dawn the house was mostly silent. The majority of the residents had retired for the night - often Kenshin would encounter the vampires going about their bedtime routine, but this morning the kitchen was empty. 

He was methodical - a quick sweep of dishes into the sink, empty and rinse the coffee pot, and put on a kettle for tea. The first rosy streaks of daylight were visible above the trees by the time he set foot outside. Kenshin breathed in the humid summer morning, a mug of hot tea in his hand,and closed his eyes. 

The climate was not quite right - the towering old forest that enclosed the house and covered much of the grounds did temper the heat considerably - but summer, strangely, was the season that affected him the most. Perhaps it was the cicadas droning ceaselessly, the birds active bright and early to fetch their breakfasts. 

Or maybe it was the fireflies that lit up the early evening air. 

He was the only one who kept up the dojo - after all, what use did most of the household have for one? It was an escape for him, much like Edward’s laboratory down in the basement was his own refuge. Kenshin slid the shoji aside but did not enter, instead seating himself on the porch, mug of hot tea by his knee. 

Summer, he had decided, seemed just a little bit more familiar from this angle.


	39. the gain

Kenshin sighed, his hands on his hips. “You are going to fall on your face,” he called. “And I am going to laugh.” 

Edward was balanced on the tree limb, very clearly ignoring Kenshin. He had monkeyed himself up a fair distance, which was no mean feat with all that metal hanging off of him. And now he was astride a limb that looked like maybe, MAYBE it would support his weight as he scooted along it, trying to reach two crumpled sheets of paper that had flown out of his grasp earlier. 

It was a windy day - and it was sheer luck that the papers got caught in a tree right at the edge of the woods. Edward had been shouting invectives that up until about twenty minutes ago Kenshin was absolutely sure did not exist in any lexicon on this planet while he chased down the escaping pages. 

And now he was twenty feet in the air, stretching along a branch that had started to bend under the stress of Edward’s weight, trying to grab at the pages before the wind took them again. “Why don’t you just use alchemy for this?” Kenshin suggested, as Edward grabbed at the papers and failed, fingertips barely brushing the edges. 

"Why don’t you just use alchemy for this?" Edward parroted in a high-pitched imitation of Kenshin’s own voice. "Use it exactly HOW, Himura?" 

"I don’t know, you’re the alchemist." This was entertaining to watch, at least. "If you break your automail falling out of the tree I’ll let you be the one to call your mechanic this time. She’s scary." 

"Fuck!" Edward screeched, his fingers just brushing the edges again. He slid down the branch just a little farther, finally reaching the papers. "Finally!" 

There was a very ominous crack.


	40. force

"You," Kenshin pushed Edward’s face into the pillows. "Are such a fucking IDIOT, sometimes, I don’t know what to do with you-" 

Edward laughed, the sound muffled by the pillows, and then cut off abruptly in a choked groan as Kenshin ground down on him. Kenshin had him by the hair, his fingers curled in it, gripping tight, close to his skull. Edward couldn’t lift his head if he wanted to. 

"What," Kenshin’s breath was hot on Edward’s ear as he hissed the words. "What am I going to DO with you, hm?" 

It was a struggle to lift his head enough not to spit the words into the pillow. “I can think of a few things,” Edward said cheekily, inhaling sharply as Kenshin struck the bare skin of his ass open-handed. He barely had enough time to take another breath before Kenshin forced his head down again. 

Edward bit back a moan as Kenshin smacked him again and again. He ground down into the bed, seeking to get away from the stinging blows but at the same time not really trying - if he was really, really trying Kenshin would have been on the floor by now. Kenshin yanked his head up by his hair and Edward gasped, panting loudly. “Can you now,” Kenshin said, his voice somehow silky smooth. “You still thinking of a few things then, I take it?” 

Edward wet his lips before replying. “Several,” he said, and Kenshin laughed, running his fingers down the crack of Edward’s ass and over his taint. He stopped there, and Edward groaned in disappointment. “Come on, Himura,” Edward said, trying to twist his head free to get a look. “Don’t leave me hanging, fuck, do you want me to beg?” 

"I would love to hear you beg,” Kenshin nearly purred.


	41. why bother

Rian shifted when Edward rolled out of bed, and he raised his head and peered at the clock. “S’not even seven,” Rian grunted, his dark hair sleep-tousled. “What are you doing?” 

Edward leaned over the bed and kissed Rian’s head. “It’s daylight, I’m up,” he said. “Go back to sleep.” 

Rian squinted at him, and yawned. “Fuckin’ crazy,” he muttered, yanking the covers back up over his shoulder and nestling back into the mattress. Edward ruffled what little of his hair was visible, and slid off the mattress, grabbing a towel off the hook and heading for the bathroom. 

It wasn’t that he couldn’t sleep in. He could sleep in with the best of them, not emerging from his bed until after noon, the sun bright and hot through the windows that overlooked their second-story bedroom. The problem was, if he opened his eyes and it was daylight, well - nightmares of a certain blonde Captain with severe brown eyes got him out of bed in a hurry. He may not be reporting for duty currently, but that did nothing to quell the gut reactions. 

There was also the fact that, when he did get up early it was enjoyable to hear the silence of the ‘Sou. With sunlight streaming through the windows he knew that the night crew was long since retired and usually the only one consistently up this early was Kenshin. 

It also meant that he got the first shower of the day, and that, for once there was plenty of hot water to spare. 

By the time he stepped out of the shower, the scent of coffee had drifted its way up to the second floor. Kenshin had considerately put a pot on before he disappeared out the door. Edward toweled his head off and smiled.


	42. the little things

It was very hot. 

Kenshin sat on the floor in the dojo, naked to the waist, his kimono folded down and over the back of his hakama. No matter what the season, he felt far more comfortable in traditional clothing if he spent a considerable amount of time outside the house. The air was still, rarely did the paper wind chime hung outside the open rice paper door make a sound. 

Edward had trucked out from the main house, he rarely got dressed in this weather. He was sprawled out on his back on the floor, long blond hair in a loose ponytail, wearing a sleeveless shirt and his blue boxers. He had stopped wearing the compression shorts, and Kenshin’s eye was often drawn toward the gap in the boxers, quietly hoping to catch an eyeful. 

"Are you sure meditation isn’t just another word for a nap?" It was the first words he had spoken in an hour, and Kenshin smiled. He had genuinely thought that Edward had gone to sleep, sprawled out so comfortably on the floor. 

"Quite sure," he murmured, hands on his knees and sitting on his feet. 

"Because I really think you’re sleeping over there sitting up," Edward opened his eyes lazily, and the wind chime made a soft sound. Edward caught Kenshin’s eye and he smiled. 

"It’s too hot to sleep anyway," Kenshin got up smoothly from his seated position, and Edward watched him as he moved over to where Edward was sprawled, before seating himself on the ground beside him. 

Kenshin didn’t quite sprawl in the same way Edward did, all big and jungle-cat lazy, but he spread himself out, the floor cool on his naked skin. “If you’re that hot, we can always go back inside,” Edward suggested. 

"Nah," Kenshin said, and closed his eyes.


	43. the jungle

Kenshin knocked on the doorframe before sticking his head in the room. Edward usually closed the door if he did not want to be disturbed in the laboratory, all the same he had a fairly entertaining fight or flight reaction to being startled, and while it was great fun to watch, Kenshin really didn’t feel like playing dodge’m with large, hardcover books. 

"I’m making sandwiches for lunch," he announced as he leaned in the door. "I know you probably just want everything possible on it, but I thought I’d ask first anywa…." 

Three identical blond heads swiveled toward the door, and Kenshin had to pause to assess. It was unusual to find more than one Elric in Edward’s lab, he was intensely territorial, and there were so many different versions of him running around that it could be easily forgiven. He had to maintain his individuality somehow. 

But right now there were three Edwards, with roughly the same proportions, kneeling on the floor in a circle obviously Up To No Good. To make things even more confusing, no one was wearing a shirt and they all had their hair down. 

Kenshin stared, and then sighed and scratched his head. “Please tell me you’re not summoning anything or having an orgy.” 

The one facing him made a face at the orgy implication. “We are not having an orgy,” he said. “That’s gross.” 

"Unless you want us to," one suggested, and the first one shoved the second one in the shoulder roughly. 

"No … no, that’s okay," Kenshin said. They hadn’t denied summoning anything, that was worrisome. But the chances of them summoning something that three combined Edwards couldn’t handle was pretty slim anyway. "Forget it, I don’t want to know, I’m going to make a sandwich." 

"No tomatoes," his Edward said.


	44. swimming

"We need a pool," Edward announced as he sat down at the kitchen table. Kenshin lowered the newspaper and stared at Edward, who had a bowl of cereal. 

"I thought you didn’t like milk," he said, as Edward dug in to the cereal. 

"I don’t, it’s water," Edward said, crunching through the syllables. Kenshin made a face and Edward grinned at him, hunched over the table. 

Kenshin shook his head and closed the newspaper, putting it on the table. “There’s a swimming hole in the woods … somewhere, Kennichi loves it.” 

"Gunk in the automail," Edward said. "Remember last autumn, cleaning all the leaves and crap that got under the forearm plate?" He held up his prosthetic illustratively. "Plus, can’t touch the ground, remember? I don’t float." 

"So you want a pool to splash around in like a baby duck," Kenshin said. "Maybe we can accommodate that." 

Edward jabbed his spoon at Kenshin. “Not a kiddie pool like we wash the dog in, you dick. Like an actual swimming pool that more than one person can get into.” 

"I don’t know if it’s a good idea, with this crowd," Kenshin said. "Besides, that’s going to end with someone having sex in the pool, and do you really want to go swimming in someone elses’ spunk?" 

"Who the fuck would try to have sex in a pool?" 

Kenshin raised his eyebrow, and Edward sat up straight. “Oh, that was NOT a swimming pool and you know it.” 

"Point still stands," Kenshin said, and picked up his tea. 

"That was once! And it wasn’t in a fucking public place -" Edward sighed. "Fuck, I hate it when you’re right. There are too many of me around here, someone would try it." 

"Mmhm," Kenshin smiled. "But, it’s not really a bad idea, though."


	45. last time

Kenshin ran his hand through Edward’s hair - it was loose, pulled out of the heavy plait he usually wore it in. He must have braided it after a shower, because his hair fell in waves down his back. Edward raised his eyes as Kenshin brushed his fingers down Edward’s temple, running his thumb under one eye before gently angling his face up. 

It was an action meant to distract him, and for good reason - Edward was gifted with his mouth and tongue - he was going to have Kenshin well over the edge way before he was ready. Kenshin watched Edward’s confused expression as he wet his bruised lips, and then the realization settled and he smirked up at Kenshin. “That close, hm?” he asked, one hand on Kenshin’s thigh, the other drifting back toward his bared erection. 

"Close enough," Kenshin murmured, carding his fingers through Edward’s hair. "I don’t want to be worn out before I get to fuck you through the mattress." 

Edward ran his tongue along the underside of Kenshin’s cock, before wrapping his mouth around it again for a long moment. “That’s what you THINK you’re doing tonight,” he said, and planted his automail hand on Kenshin’s belly, pushing him back. 

"What DO I think I’m doing?" Kenshin repeated as Edward climbed him, sitting astride his abdomen and putting both hands flat on the bed, on either side of Kenshin’s head. "Why, were you planning something different?" 

"Well," Edward murmured, dipping his head low. "I could always fuck you, instead." 

Kenshin reached up, running his hand down Edward’s jaw and encouraging him down to a kiss. “That would be fun, too,” he said when they finally parted, breathing hard through his nose. “As long as someone gets their brains fucked out today, I’m happy.”


	46. last one left

"You know," Edward said as he brought the last of the plates to the counter. "We do have a dishwasher. You don’t have to do that by hand." 

Kenshin looked up, and then pointed Edward toward the bin. “Scrape them first,” he said, and Edward rolled his eyes but did so. 

"You’re just making things more difficult," Edward argued, as the dog danced around his feet, begging pitifully for scraps and being ignored completely. "What is the point of having the damn thing if you never use it?" 

"I seem to recall you attempting to fix this one," Kenshin was amused, rinsing off a plate and setting it on a towel to dry. "And then attempting to get it airborne." 

"Hey, I don’t talk about all the stupid shit YOU do all the time." Edward dropped the plates into the sink, and Kenshin raised an eyebrow. 

"Really. All the stupid shit that I do." 

"Yeah." Edward dithered around the counter, poking at the cleaned flatware. "Don’t ask for examples, I haven’t been keeping a list. Which is the whole point." 

"Mmhm." Kenshin handed Edward a clean plate, dripping, and Edward looked at it, confused. "If you’re going to stand there, why not grab a towel and help?" 

Edward took the towel off of Kenshin’s shoulder and started drying off the clean dish. “This is silly,” he said, and Kenshin fished around in the sink, finding the last of the cutlery. “There’s a perfectly good-“ 

"If you mention the dishwasher one more time, I’ll make you empty it," Kenshin said, and Edward paused. 

"Why is that a threat?" 

"Why don’t you open it up and see?" Kenshin looked over at him, and Edward glanced at the now-suspicious form of the closed dishwasher. 

"I think I need another towel," he said instead.


	47. can't hide

It was strange that Edward wasn’t in his posted refuge of the laboratory. Kenshin stood in the doorway, one hand on the doorframe, and did another sweep of the room with his eyes. The lab wasn’t particularly big - the only place Edward could hide from Kenshin’s view would be behind the couch, and there was no way that he would stay that still and silent for long - if he even realized that Kenshin was there looking for him. 

It was disquieting. Edward was a creature of habit - they all were, really - and his absence with no prior warning settled a shred of worry in his gut. Edward had a propensity for digging up trouble, whether he was looking for it or not, and an even greater penchant for taking the burden on himself, alone. He never wanted to ask for help, especially if he felt like he needed to protect someone. Kenshin was the last person who needed Edward’s protection though, and they both knew that. 

Edward just liked to conveniently forget that. 

The den was quiet as well, the television off and the only person present an Edward, distinguished only by the wisps of blond hair and prominent antenna escaping from underneath the pillows he had barricaded himself under. Kenshin did not hesitate, he knew at a glance it was not the Edward he was looking for - the two bare feet dangling over the arm rest told him all he needed to know. 

He shouldn’t let himself worry like this - there was no indication that Edward was in any danger. He was likely in TROUBLE (or would be, whenever Kenshin actually FOUND him) but not in any actual danger. 

Kenshin scratched his neck, and headed back upstairs, trying to ignore the unsettled feeling.


	48. little light

Edward brushed at the firefly that landed on his book, and then frowned and looked up. Somehow, once again, the passage of time had eluded him and it had grown incredibly dark. The light from inside the bedroom cast a slim yellow square on the shingles beside him, providing him with enough ambient light so that he hadn’t noticed the sunset. 

Even now, there was still the faintest brush of light over the tops of the trees, the sun had not faded entirely from the sky. Edward pressed his flesh hand back, against the shingles, and could still feel the day’s warmth. 

The porch roof was his favorite place outdoors. For the most part no one noticed him up here nor bothered him - occasionally the dragon would land on the roof and lean over to study him curiously, but the behemoth sensed he was not Sariel and left him well enough alone. It was a perfect vantage point to watch and remain unseen. 

Another firefly flitted past, glowing yellow-green in the darkness. They didn’t usually come this close to the house, the lightning bugs lit up the darkness along the edges of the woods, patterns of light solely found in a summer’s evening. Edward shooed the firefly away, watching it flit merrily back in the direction of its fellows. 

A shadow cast across the light from his bedroom, and Edward didn’t turn around when the window slid open. “I have been looking for you all day, what are you doing out there?” 

"Watching the fireflies," Edward said. He glanced back when the light went off, and then Kenshin swung his leg over the sill, sliding out onto the porch roof with him. "Guess you’re joining me, huh?" 

Kenshin sat beside Edward and nudged him with his knee. “Guess so.”


	49. flowery prose

"It weirds me out when you go to ground," Edward said, sliding the rice-paper door aside. "You yell at me when I disappear all day." 

Kenshin looked up from the small table he was kneeling behind. “I do not yell at you,” he sniffed. 

"Bullshit you don’t." Edward leaned in the room. “What the hell are you doing in here, I didn’t even realize that there were rooms on the other side of the dojo.” He did not cross the threshold into the room though, balanced on his knees he put one hand on the tatami floor. 

"Writing," Kenshin said, indicating the low table before him. "Sometimes instead of meditation, I will compose haiku. It is very calming." 

"You’re in here writing poetry," Edward said, and sat back on his heels. "You can’t do that inside, where it isn’t a thousand fucking degrees?" 

"I am inside," Kenshin said, insulted. 

Edward glared at him, and Kenshin picked up the brush again. “You knew what I meant.” 

"And from the one who bitches about the air conditioning constantly, I find it quite bemusing." Kenshin pulled his kimono sleeve back and dipped the brush in ink. "If it’s too hot for you in here, perhaps you should return to the house." 

Edward sat back and pulled off his boots, kicking them off the polished wood. Kenshin frowned at that, tracking the footwear. “You aren’t supposed to wear those inside,” he scolded, and Edward rolled his eyes. 

"It’s a porch, I forget," he said. "At least I know to take them off before I come inside." He edged in the room, and walked on his knees over to the table. Kenshin raised an eyebrow at him. "What? I want to see what you’ve wrote." 

"It is in Japanese," Kenshin said patiently. 

"So?" Edward said.


	50. cat's paw

Roy Mustang sat in the shadow of the house and blinked at the sky. He was up earlier than usual - it was notoriously hard to get him out of bed before the setting of the sun, and even Edward often gave up on him, but Rian was very persistent. He was also using the mattress as a trampoline, and was naked to boot, and thus Roy was very awake. 

(And now Rian was walking just a little bit funny. Ed probably sent him in as bait because he knew that Roy would just sleep through whatever it was he had planned.) 

Nearly everyone was outside - one of the Eds was grilling - must be the colonel, because he was taller than the Kenshin who was trying to supervise - and the scent of meat hung heavy in the air. Roy wasn’t supposed to get hungry, but it sure smelled appetizing. 

He could smell his Ed before he saw him - the werewolf smelled of musk. Roy shook his head as Edward bounded up, Rian draped over his back like a cape. He was only wearing swim shorts - it was very hard to keep him wearing any clothing in the summer time, but Kennichi was much the same way. They’d shift to their lupine forms and back again and just run around naked if they could get away with it. 

"At least he could walk when I was done," Roy said, as Edward let Rian down. Rian sat very gingerly, and stuck his tongue out at Roy. Edward flopped in a very undignified manner, onto his back, and exhaled. 

"Barely," Rian wiggled his toes in the grass. "I could barely walk when you were done." 

"Are you alright?" Roy asked, and Rian beamed. 

"Can we go again?" 

"He’s all right," Edward sounded exhausted. "Little fucker nearly wore me out."


	51. only the lonely

Sariel liked to perch. He hadn’t always been like that - he blamed the wings, of course, as well as the “proper” Sariel who enjoyed standing on flagpoles and antenna to get the lay of the land. But there was something strangely comforting about being up high, even with the wings tucked away - no one could touch him, here. 

Except perhaps the idiot who attempted to follow him up the tree. 

He had perched high, as he was wont to do, sitting astride a branch that really shouldn’t be holding his weight as well as it was. The entire tree shook when his pursuit landed, halfway up the branches in a shower of twigs and leaves. Sariel leaned out, looking down. “What the hell are you doing, Mustang?” 

Roy Mustang - the former colonel, now bound to Sariel by their earthborne angel status - clung to the trunk of the tree like a scared kitten and glared up at Edward. “Trying to land!” 

Sariel-Edward laughed, both hands on the branch he was sitting astride. “You call that a landing?” 

Roy’s wings were mottled, black and gray and white, the darkest bits matching his hair. He shook his wings out, feathers ruffled. Sariel-Edward grinned at this, wings were as good as a tail when it came to broadcasting emotions, and while Roy was good at keeping things off his face and out of his voice, his wings would always tell the true story. 

He also wasn’t letting go of the trunk. Sariel-Edward tilted forward, peering down at Roy. “You’re not afraid of the height, are you?” 

"No!" Roy glanced down and then back up at Edward quickly. "No, I’m not afraid of heights." 

"Then you should come up here," Edward called, bouncing on his branch and shaking the entire tree.


	52. washed out

Edward ran his hands down Kenshin’s chest, mismatched fingers mapping ever muscle and scar. Kenshin licked his lips and stared at the ceiling, his eyes unfocused, still breathing hard. Edward leaned over him, a wicked grin on his face. “That was impressive,” he said. “I didn’t know you could make a noise like that.” 

Kenshin closed his eyes, and Edward ran his automail fingers through the slick cooling on Kenshin’s belly. He smeared the semen over Kenshin’s skin, and Kenshin nudged him with a knee. “Stop that,” he murmured, and Edward looked back up to meet his eyes. 

It really was bliss, being able to see Kenshin’s post-orgasm face. He was completely satiated, his bones gone to mush, and Edward knew that the second he started moving again Kenshin was going to double up, strung tighter than a piano wire. He ran his hands up Kenshin’s chest, off his shoulders and placed them flat in the bunched sheets on either side of Kenshin’s head. This forced Kenshin’s body up, his lower back in the air, and his legs hanging off of Edward’s shoulders. 

"Really?" Edward ground down, and Kenshin groaned at the movement. "I can stop, if you want." 

"Damn, dammit-" Kenshin’s voice came out choked. "Edward, please-" 

It was too late, Edward had already found a new rhythm. Kenshin’s eyes fell closed, and he reached up, grabbing Edward by the neck and pulling him down. The friction of their bodies together was very quickly driving Edward mad; he usually didn’t last longer than Kenshin did and he wanted to come, now. 

Kenshin curled up into him, his eyes closed and mouth open, panting almost in time with Edward’s movement. Edward stared down at him, the pressure of Kenshin’s fingers curled into his neck, before leaning in and kissing him.


	53. rude awakening

It wasn’t quite like jet lag, Kenshin thought as he lay in bed, staring at the sunlight striping patterns across the unfamiliar ceiling. It wasn’t quite like anything, really - how many people got to check ‘crossing realities’ off of their bucket list, after all? 

He just felt tired, worn out, wrung-out - there was this big splotchy hole in his memory that didn’t feel right, this blankness that niggled at him like it was important. He remembered taking Edward’s hand, he remembered waking up in a pool of blood not his own, but there was this black spot of nothing in-between. 

That nothingness was his passage through the Gate. 

He knew that, Edward had held his shoulders, stared at him, asked what he had remembered, did it speak to him, did it TAKE anything - but he couldn’t remember. There was nothing there. The relief on Edward’s face outweighed Kenshin’s disquiet so he said nothing about how that strangeness weighed on him. 

And now, he couldn’t sleep because of it. 

Not that he had ever been a morning sleeper, even at home. (This was home now, he told himself firmly, this was Edward’s home and now it was his too, there was no going back from this, he had already DECIDED.) Kenshin sighed deeply, as a breeze stirred the curtains and threw the sunlight on the ceiling into disarray. The warm summer air smelled so much cleaner here. No wonder Edward wanted to come back. 

Speaking of, Edward rolled onto his side, his breath warm across Kenshin’s bare shoulder. Kenshin smiled and put his arm around Edward, pulling him closer. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter, did it? The Gate, the blankness, all of it. He left it all behind for Edward, and that was something he would never regret.


	54. give in to it

Edward’s automail arm was both heavy and cool. He had slung it over Kenshin’s chest, as a measure of protection. He knew Kenshin was awake, he could tell by his breathing and by the rapid staccato beat of his heart but he did not want to lift his head. 

He was HOME. 

The room was not his - the room that he and Al had shared years ago, whenever they visited the Rockbells, that had long since been re-purposed. At first he thought it was Al’s room, but then he realized, meeting his brother coming out of Winry’s room one night, why there was only one bedroom in use. 

It was weird, and not in a necessarily good way. He caught the looks that Al thought he was oblivious to. Roy first, and then Winry too - cautionary words, how they had come to find Al in that city underground, how he had no memories of his time in the armor, how he had no memories of Ed past that horrible point that their lives skewed out of control. 

It clawed at his gut. Everything they had experienced, everything they had learned - the good with the bad, all of it gone? His brother was a stranger to him now - and he was a stranger to Alphonse. Here they were meeting as adults, and now they, and their lives were totally different. 

Not for the first time he was grateful to the fact that Kenshin had followed him through hell to be here. Everything was different now, weird in a way that wasn’t good or bad - and he wasn’t quite sure he still fit in. 

Maybe he shouldn’t have come back. Maybe he should have stayed and been content. But no matter what, despite everything, this was home.


	55. one month

Winry Rockbell was really not quite sure what to think of the strange man Edward brought into their home. Oh, he was nice enough - just a touch taller than Edward, an open, easy smile and painfully polite to both her and Alphonse - but he was a complete stranger to them both. She didn’t quite understand - Edward’s chattering of the world beyond where he had been these past almost nine years, now - but this man came from that world with him, hand clasped firmly in Edward’s and a fierce protectiveness in his eyes that she had only ever seen in Ed’s own.

He was so different than Edward - quiet and reserved, unless he was arguing in a good-natured manner across the dinner table at Edward, but the house that had seemed so big when they were all so much younger was a lot smaller now, and she would catch them, side-by-side washing the dishes, shoulders touching as if they didn’t want to step out of the others’ personal space. They were connected in a way she never thought Edward of all people would EVER be, and while no comment had ever actually been made on the rings they wore, the meaning behind them was clear.

How could Edward be so very much the same as she remembered, as yet be entirely different at the same time? It was completely baffling.

They weren’t planning to stay long - it was just that they had no where else to go, while the military sorted out whether Edward was going to get any back pay for disappearing while still on the military’s dime, and in Edward’s own words, he just wanted Kenshin to get used to the new world that they were going to make their home together in.


	56. applause

Kenshin winced a little as small fists pulled at his hair. He didn’t know what had possessed him to agree to watching the toddler - but Rian was a vampire, and Alby apparently was not one. While he didn’t burst into spectacular flames in the daylight hours, he did need to sleep SOMETIME. And thus, Kenshin had a five-year-old Albion sitting on his shoulders, watching the roof of the large house with rapt attention. 

"I don’t know that this is such a good idea," Kenshin sighed, and Edward snorted. It was Edward who had put the toddler on Kenshin’s shoulders to begin with - ("Finally admitting I’m the taller one?" "Shut the hell up, Himura.") - and he stood next to Kenshin, a hand shadowing his eyes. He seemed a lot more comfortable with the toddler than Kenshin would have expected. 

"It wasn’t mine or yours, so we’re absolved from the fallout," Edward said. "Besides, I want to see if the dragon’ll eat Sariel this time." 

"Did you tell him that Hiccup’s rigged his tail so that he can fly without him?" Kenshin asked, glancing to Edward. 

Edward’s huge, shit-eating grin told him all he needed to know. “Ed!” 

"Relax, it’s not like Toothless can kill’em," Edward said with a shrug. There was a sudden flurry of feathers, and Alby’s hands in Kenshin’s hair tightened as he shrieked in amusement. Kenshin didn’t dare crane his neck upward like he wanted, lest he dislodge the child. "Whoops, there he goes." 

Toothless didn’t let out an earthshattering roar, but there was the beat of enormous, black leathery wings and a huge shadow passed over them both. In the distance, high above their heads they both heard Sariel exlaim “holy SHIT!” and Alby shrieked again in amusement, grabbing feathers out of the air.


	57. cheap wine

Kenshin watched the light change, from inky black to a pale gray light, murky through the blinds. He hadn’t slept, not really, the haze of intoxication slowly lifting and leaving in its place a steady throb at his temples. Edward was snuggled secure under his arm, breath warm across his chest, solidly, deeply asleep. Edward could sleep through a tornado, and chances were good if Kenshin slipped out from his grasp he wouldn’t even stir. 

The headache shifted to behind his eyes as the light slowly grew to fill the room. It illuminated unfamiliar furniture, Edward’s shirt thrown on the dresser and the doorway cracked slightly. He kept expecting the door to be pawed open, to hear the familiar stubby thud of an insistent, hungry canine but it never came - that portion of their life, like many others, had been left behind them forever. 

Instead, he heard the floor creak as the others woke and moved downstairs, and Kenshin lifted his hand to rub his face. The odds were pretty good that he and Edward had drunken, noisy sex last night, and he didn’t want to have to face Edward’s brother and pretend like they probably didn’t hear them the next bedroom over. He should have known better, that he wasn’t accustomed to this world’s alcohol, but he hadn’t expected to get so wasted. 

(Not that Edward hadn’t encouraged it, damn him.) 

Kenshin sighed and closed his eyes, the offending light so bright he couldn’t ignore it any longer. He could hear the sound of glass clinking now, downstairs, dishes in the sink and the sound of breakfast starting. Despite his hangover Kenshin’s stomach gave an encouraging rumble and Edward sighed, a strangely contented noise against the gurgle. 

"Mm," Edward’s sleepy voice said, buried still against Kenshin. “‘M hungry."


	58. run

"You have GOT to be kidding me," Edward said, and while he was breathing hard through his open mouth there was still a touch of humor in his voice. "How-?" 

Kenshin was sitting on a large rock by the side of the path, legs tucked under and back straight. He raised an eyebrow at Edward, who huffed, started to lean over in an attempt to sit down and finally gave up the pretense of stability and flopped over onto his back in the tall grass beside the outcropping. Kenshin leaned over and looked down at him. “Are you all right?” 

"HOW," Edward demanded. "I passed you - I PASSED you." 

"Mm," Kenshin said, and rubbed a hand on his leg. "And yet, I’ve been waiting quite a while for you to catch up." 

"You’re not human," there was a wheeze in Edward’s voice. "You’re made of - shit, I don’t even know. I bet your bones are hollow like a bird’s, that’s why you’re so fucking fast." 

"Or, you know," Kenshin said. "On the other hand, you could be hauling around almost a third of your body weight in solid metal and that might be what’s slowing YOU down." 

There was a long pause, as Edward’s breath slowed from the rapid level it was at. “Fuck, that’s not true,” he said. “I can outrun Mustang.” There was another long pause, and Kenshin did not even have to voice his disbelief for Edward to respond to. “He is too fucking prideful to let me win at something as simple as a footrace, fucking prick. Also, I hate you.” 

Kenshin rolled his eyes and propped his elbow on his knee. “Are you done trying to consume all the breathable air, or shall I continue on without you?” 

"Really, REALLY fuckin’ hate you."f


	59. almost there

Kenshin ran his fingers through Edward’s sweaty bangs, brushing them back from his face as Edward tipped his head back. He was panting, breathing through his mouth, and his face was flushed with exertion. It was a brilliant look on him, blindingly gorgeous and Kenshin framed his jaw with one hand, dragged it back down so that they could make eye contact. 

Edward’s eyes had gone lazy, hooded with want, and wordlessly Kenshin tugged him forward, drinking him in solidly. Mouth on mouth, liquid fire and now it was Edward coming back to himself, both hands on Kenshin’s shoulders and shoving him down, pressing him back into the bed with the weight of his body. Kenshin went willingly, he let Edward assert his dominance, spreading his legs just that little bit more, as if they could get any closer together. 

When Edward lifted his head to groan enthusiastically, Kenshin was quick, somehow still in his right mind about these things and covering Edward’s mouth with his hand. Edward nipped at him and then it was Kenshin who had to suppress himself. They couldn’t be noisy, not here - as much as he wanted to hear the symphony of noise Edward could emanate in the throes of passion, they could get caught here, and the threat of that kept Kenshin silent. 

They couldn’t get caught - and Kenshin laid the back of his hand over his mouth as Edward moved again, firmer this time, harder - he could sense that Kenshin was close and was simply trying to break that solid resolve. It was as if Edward wanted to get them caught - and Kenshin was fast losing his ability to care as Edward continued to push him further toward the edge, legs splayed wide and back arched to the bed.


	60. how long is

"I’m sick of winter." Edward sat with both his elbows in the window’s frame, glaring out at the bluster of snow spiraling furiously past. "It’s almost fuckin’ April, this is goddamn ridiculous."

"Mm." Kenshin rinsed another plate in the sink, only half-listening, as Edward had been on this rant since the end of February. "Despite popular belief, a switch doesn’t flip overnight, Edward."

"No, but I bet if we ran that brat Frost out it would warm up around here real fast." Edward folded his arms and then slumped, dropping his chin to rest on his arms. "Would help if I could even see the bastard."

"I don’t know why you can’t, just about everyone else here can." Dishes went in the strainer, Kenshin hadn’t opened the dishwasher in weeks - he wasn’t sure what was in there, but it growled occasionally. "Unless you still think we’re making him up just to mess with your head."

Edward glared at the faint reflection of Kenshin in the glass. “I refuse to discount the possibility.”

"Yeah, that’s definitely why you can’t see him."

"Whatever, that doesn’t negate the fact that someone needs to show him the door. I’m ready for the sun and the grass and the trees-"

"And the heat, and your constant complaining about how hot it is, that we need to turn on the air - and then the complaints about living in a refrigerator start." Edward lifted his head and actually turned the full force of his glare on Kenshin, who glanced back at him and smiled sweetly. "I still love you, though."

Edward grumbled to himself and dropped his chin back on his arms. “I’m just so sick of this never-ending winter,” he said with a long sigh.

Kenshin nodded, and returned to the dishes. “Me too.”


	61. homestead

Alby sat astride a tree branch and kicked his bare feet. It was his favorite tree to climb, an old, solid thing that was still within line-of-sight of the house. Rian lounged against the old white railing, grateful for the fact the sun had passed and now the entire porch was bathed in cooling shade.

The sunglasses helped a little, but not enough - he would have a massive headache in a few hours; and Ed better be on-call because the only thing that helped a sun-headache was liberal application of werewolf blood. Rian watched as Alby kicked, then leaped to his feet, balancing expertly on the limb.

The kid was an acrobat - he had a lightness on his feet that Rian envied. He wouldn’t at all be surprised if he suddenly took off - after all, fairies and frost spirits both could fly - but instead Alby grabbed a higher branch and scrambled himself up the tree a little more. Rian smiled a little despite himself.

"So how old’s the kid today?" Edward’s head and shoulders appeared from the roof above. His hair was all loose and hung around his head as he grinned at Rian. The loose hair signified that this was Sariel, the earthborne angel and not any of the other Edward Elrics that roamed the grounds of the old house. He was likely sunning himself on the porch’s roof.

"Seven or eight," Rian said, looking at Sariel above his sunglasses. "It’s hard to tell. I wish he’d stop time-skipping it’s making dealing with him very aggravating."

"I bet." Sariel had mantled his wings to shade his head. "What about Frosty, where’s he gone off to? Maybe he should take the kid for a while."

"Southern hemisphere, just like he does every year," Rian said softly.


	62. of the earth

"Mitsuketa~" Edward called, half hanging out the front door. Kenshin looked up from his book and sighed, hearing the door slam and Edward’s bounding footsteps on the concrete.

"You’re going to make me regret teaching you Japanese," he said, as Edward hiked himself up onto the stone railing. Edward kicked his left foot off the brick, the automail clanging noisily. "What do you want?"

"Bored," Edward said.

Kenshin raised an eyebrow at him, and Edward leaned forward, hands planted between his legs. “Look, I’ve been GOOD,” he complained. “I haven’t blown anything up in days, I’ve NOT intentionally traumatized the newbies, and I’ve haven’t suggested feeding Sariel to the dragon in like a week.” He kicked his feet off the railing again. “I’m BORED.”

"Never thought I’d see the day that you’ve gotten tired of being buried in your books," Kenshin said, amused. "What do you mean, INTENTIONALLY traumatized, what have you done?"

Edward waved his hand before his face dismissively. “I haven’t done anything either way, just covering my bases.”

"Uh-huh," Kenshin said. He marked his place and closed his book.

"I don’t even know if they’re traumatizable," Edward continued, as Kenshin stood up and stretched. "They don’t really seem scared of anything except the dragon, and even I won’t get close to that thing, I don’t want to get barbecued."

"Please don’t take that as a personal challenge, it’s been quiet and I like quiet," Kenshin said.

Edward hopped up, balancing on the wide railing easily. “It won’t last,” he responded. “It never does, something’ll come along and-” He made an exploding noise and gestured. “It’s been a while since it was ninjas, my money’s on ninjas.”

Kenshin rolled his eyes and opened the front door, gesturing for Edward to follow him. “We’re not getting attacked by ninjas.”


End file.
